We do not have to tell you that over the past year there has been a massive increase in the popularity of smartphones: iPhones to Blackberry to Android to Windows Mobile. It seems nearly everyone can access the web on the move. Phones equipped with 3G and wireless capabilities can deliver information quickly to an ever growing number of users.

Ask Yourself: “Are you taking advantage of the opportunities that mobile can bring to a digital campaign?”

This year MobileStorm noted the rise in mobile internet use and predicted it would only increase in the years to come, and that was all before the release of the iPad. The increased number of people accessing the web through mobile devices has opened up a new and exciting market. Brands that invest in mobile development during 2011 will reap the rewards and position themselves strongly in their market place.

Mobile stats for 2010

• Morgan Stanley (November 2010) predicts that the mobile web will be twice the size of the desktop web within 5 years.
• MobileStorm quoted research from ABI who predict mobile display ads spend in the US will rise from its current $313 million to $1.2 billion by 2015.
• Impact Media reported findings from Berg Insight, a leading business analyst, that come 2015 mobile marketing will be responsible for 15.7% of the digital advertising industry.
• Berg Insight also announced that they predict 67% of consumers plan to use their phones to assist them in their Christmas shopping this year.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to prepare your site for mobile users to take full advantage of this growing market.

The app market is also growing in conjunction with mobile marketing, producing an app for your product or brand can keep you at the forefront of the market.

Zeta offer

Not sure how to integrate mobile into your marketing strategy? Drop us a line for a free consultation.

Being British, the weather has a massive impact on nearly everything we do, from conversations with colleagues to our search behaviour on the internet.  It will therefore come as no surprise that the time of year and the weather we are experiencing drives what we search for on the web. Where the summer calls for barbeques and flip flops, the wintery months gain searches for gloves, boots and all things woollen.

We all know the importance of targeting the correct search term, if your business sells apples there is no point opting for deckchairs. Clever businesses are altering their search terms as the year progresses in order to react to the change in needs of their visitors. By opting for seasonal keywords a business can widen the net, display their seasonal products and increase traffic to their site.

The common consensus regarding British weather is that predicting it can be like storing water in a sieve, but we can be sure of some things. History has shown us that the winter will be cold and the summer will be slightly warmer.  Aside from the occasional freakish weather, such as a rainy August bank holiday or T-shirts in January, seasonal weather changes can be expected. Gearing your search term for the coming months can put you a step ahead of your competitors.

Preparing your search term in time is essential, and depending on your budget and chosen key words it could take as long as 3-6 months for search engines to catch on. This means in the height of summer you have to start thinking about mince pies and ear muffs. Not much fun, but it does mean you have a snow shoe on the ladder before the rest.

Obviously pay-per-click campaigns can target the random cold snaps and the unpredictable heat waves and during the short time they are relevant, but addressing organic search results can keep your company in it for the long run.

With snow already forecast in Scotland and temperatures falling below zero elsewhere, searches for winter woollies and blankets are sure to increase, have you done enough to maximise your target keywords?

The app is described as an “Access All Areas” pass to showbiz news and will give fans of showbiz all the latest celebrity news and pictures on the go, as it happens. The App has reportedly already attracted thousands of pre-registrations on The Sun’s website.

The app updates automatically throughout the day with breaking celebrity news content from Gordon Smart’s Bizarre column so followers can be sure they will be the first to get the insider news.  It also features an exclusive “Live Gossip” Twitter style feed from the Bizarre team and celebrity guest tweeters. Launching it off today is guest tweeter X factor winner Joe McElderry.

The app is available to download worldwide from today via the Apple store and Android Marketplace. But is Murdoch, as ever, being too greedy again?  One of my personal criticisms of this app is the price. At £1.19 for a 30-day subscription, I would think twice before purchasing the app!

Whilst the fee is small when you look at the bigger picture – I spend at least £3.00 a week on celebrity gossip magazines, and buying the Sun newspaper every day for a week would cost more than that monthly fee.

But how does the price compare to the price of Smartphone Apps already in the market?

Through some of our own research and discussions here at Zeta we have discovered that most people will pay up to £1.19 as a one-off fee for an app download, with £0.59 and £0.99 being the prices most likely to convert into a sale.

Will the Bizarre App be as successful as it could have been had it been priced lower? Will the app be so great for Showbiz fans, that after subscribing for one month users will return for another 11 months thus making The Sun £14.28 per subscriber? Only time will tell.

The fact that it is a paid for app on monthly subscription might also be a good thing – a gentle teaser or a toe in the water for Sun readers who may soon be exposed to a Times style paywall.

I think the well-established column will have a great many loyal followers who will support the App launch and having just viewed the app in the iPhone App Store displaying a credible 4 stars, I think it will be quite successful!

On second thoughts, maybe I will download it and give it a quick review in a follow-up post! Keep your eyes peeled!
In the meantime, read the reviews on iTunes and download the app here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-sun-bizarre/id386582534?mt=8

Picture this; a group of beautiful women, glowing the colour orange, surrounded by a group of footballers and boisterous men.

Don’t be mistaken I am not talking about a night out with my fake tanned friends, I am talking about the latest ambush marketing stunt at the 2010 FIFA World Cup by Dutch beer company Bavaria!

It was not instantly obvious that the 36 women wearing tight figure hugging bright orange dresses at the World Cup game between Denmark and Holland on Monday 14^th June 2010 were advertising for the Dutch Brewery.

(And let’s not forget ITV pundit Robbie Earle who is said to have provided Bavaria with the free tickets to the World Cup Match who has since been fired!)

The Cup’s authorised beer is Budweiser which pays millions for the sponsorship. The stunt went slightly wrong as not only were the women ejected by FIFA official stewards at half time. Two are now rumoured to be facing a jail sentence! It has also been revealed that FIFA has also started legal proceedings against the Dutch brewer.

Was it worth it?

Well the resulting publicity from the stunt has heightened the popularity and awareness of the brand. Ironically the publicity sought by the brands who undertake ambush techniques usually arises from the general public and / or official outcry and attempts to stop the activity from taking place. This actually further draws attention to the situation, which of course is exactly what the brands hope for.

Think, if the FIFA officials had ignored the women and let them stay for the whole match …But they didn’t and low and behold, the name Bavaria has been plastered all over the national press and if you perform a quick Google news search for Bavaria beer there are pages of articles reporting on the incident.

Why Use Ambush Marketing?

Ambush Marketing is a term often frowned upon in industry circles. It is used to describe a marketing technique; often using guerrilla tactics that occurs around an event but does not involve a sponsorship fee to the event and annoyingly for the event organisers rarely breaks any laws so cannot be legally enforced.

A brand or company will abuse the publicity value of an event to gain an unfair publicity or marketing benefits despite having no financial or sponsorship involvement with the event.  For events with a large significance and a high profile such as the FIFA World Cup there are often a few selected sponsors who pay a huge fee to hold the exclusive rights. Details of the official World cup sponsors and partners can be found here:  http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/partners/index.html

But why did FIFA act this way

Well FIFA like many large world sporting event organisers takes its sponsors very seriously.  Understandable when over a third of their revenue comes from commercial sponsors. Budweiser is the official World Cup beer and have paid millions for this right. Therefore FIFA vigorously peruses anyone trying to associate themselves with the tournament – doing everything in their power to prevent other brands directly or indirectly associating themselves with the World Cup.

Sponsorship of major sporting events like the World Cup attracts large-scale publicity and is an effective and lucrative vehicle for the promotion of brands. Sponsorship is a million dollar business, and the fees paid for exclusive rights are the backbones of such events.  Ambush marketing undermines events integrity, so if FIFA simply ignore such stunts, the value of sponsorship will diminish and large commercial sponsors will remove Sports sponsorship from their marketing mixes. Without the financial backing of sponsors and partners there would be no World Cup.

A Win Lose Situation

The main issue surrounding sponsorship of events like the World Cup is that the less established brands and companies with a smaller international presence will wish to expose their brand on an international scope, that only such large events like the World Cup can promise, but may never be able to maximise from the opportunity as they do not have the budget to invest the millions of pounds that sponsorship contracts demand. What ambush activities gives such brands is a snippet of the World Cup benefits for a fraction (or at no cost) of the price tag.

The companies who make use of clever, creative tactics to get noticed and self associate themselves with such international events are by far the best in my eyes. Yet, brands must be weary. As highlighted in today’s G2 supplement of the Guardian, ambush marketing can seriously backfire. If brands are associating themselves with a sport like Football they need to be able to demonstrate a long term strategy and benefits, rather than a here today gone tomorrow approach. The brand’s values, credentials and meanings must share a parallel with the event in order to create the emotional attachment between the brand and the events stakeholders.

Not the First Year for Bavaria

In the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Bavaria beer also tried a similar tactic, making orange trousers the cult outfit by giving bright orange coloured lederhosen to Dutch football fans.  FIFA officials were not impressed and fans of the Netherlands were made to remove Bavaria Brewery’s orange trousers because Budweiser was the official beer sponsor. In one of the most surreal experiences reported, the stadium officials in Stuttgart made the supporters remove their Bavaria branded attire – leaving many to watch the game in their underpants!

I wonder why they didn’t get the women this year to remove their dresses instead of arresting them?

Ambush Highlights

Here are some notable events over the past years and Brands that embarked on Ambush Marketing techniques to get themselves noticed. Highlights include:

• 1984 Olympics – Kodak sponsors TV broadcasts of the Olympic Games as well as the US track team despite Fujifilm being the official sponsor.
• 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona – Nike sponsors press conferences with the US basketball team however Reebok were the official sponsor. During televised events and ceremonies the players covered up their Reebok logos.
• One of the greatest ambush marketing stunts of all time is when Nike ambassador Michael Jordan, Mr Air Sponsorship himself, accepts the gold medal for basketball and covers up the Reebok logo on his shirt.
• In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; sprinter Linford Christie wore contact lenses embossed with the Puma logo at the press conference preceding the 100 metres final. Reebok was the official sponsor of the game. How much Christie was paid for this is unknown.
• During the 1996 Cricket World Cup – Pepsi ran a series of advertisements titled “nothing official about it”, whilst it was not directly attributable the message was covertly targeting the official sponsor Coca Cola – very clever.
• In 2000 Sydney Olympics – Qantas Airlines’ slogan “The Spirit of Australia” sounds strikingly similar to the Games’ slogan “Share the Spirit.” despite Ansett Air being the official sponsor.
• In 2008 Beijing Olympics – entire countries were tuned into the Opening Ceremonies, and worldwide, millions more saw former Olympic gymnast Li Ning light the torch and learned that he owns a shoe company with the same name, a direct rival of Adidas and quite famous in China, but not an official Olympic sponsor.
• 2010 Super Bowl XLIV – Canadian gay dating site ManCrunch is accused of ambush marketing when it submits a controversial advertisement to CBS for air during the game. The theory is that ManCrunch produced the ad knowing that it would never be accepted and hoped the controversy would drum up the intended attention without having to pay the nearly US$3,000,000 price for an advertisement during the game.

The economic growth of any country comes from the government and the private sector. I do not need to tell you about the state the British Government has been left in after thirteen years of Labour Governing. But let’s take a look about the state of UK creative industries:

I speak on behalf of those working in creative industries throughout the UK that many of us have seen a drastic cut back in Private Sector spending – huge cutbacks in client budgets since 2008 particularly in the advertising, public relations and graphic design industries. This being attributed to the massive government spending which has had a negative impact in private sector consumption and investment. When business directors and shareholders do not understand the true importance of marketing these divisions of the business are usually the first to see a slash in budget.

Lucky for those of us in the digital industry we have not suffered so much at the hands of the public sector over spend. In fact we have seen an increase in online marketing spend with more organisations and companies starting to embrace and understand the value of marketing their business and products online. In fact, 66% of companies are planning to increase their digital marketing budgets during 2010 (Marketing Budgets Report, econsultancy 2010).

Creative SME’s have competed for public sector contracts

In attempts to further conserve profits many SME’s have turned to the public sector to sustain their business. This has proved a good strategy in some cases but has generally not been the case for creative SME’s due to the rigid procurement processes which prevent smaller private sector providers from competing for public sector contracts. Sam Allen, search expert at Zeta wrote an excellent post about public sector organisations using private design agencies.

Labour ‘spin’ has resulted in a negative reputation for Marketing and PR

PR is often said to be about reputation management yet through poor and ineffective attempts to manage themselves the UK government has damaged the meaning of PR.

The government’s attempts to ‘market’ themselves and influence public opinion have always had a negative impact on the perceived value of Public Relations and there is nothing new here. However the last thirteen years or so of government ruling have left the UK industry severely tarnished. From the appalling MP’s expenses which were leaked in 2008-09 to the infamous “good day to bury bad news” email sent by Jo Moore during the 9/11 bombings – Labour has been an excellent example of poor reputation management riddled with communication crisis, slander and lies and this is giving the PR industry a terrible position.

Secondly, in an attempt to win the public votes the three main parties (hypocritically) throughout their campaigns have taken a real swipe at PR.

“They’ve threatened to slash public sector PR and marketing spend, or even to ban public sector spending on what we’d otherwise see as normal government activity. The risk is that good government takes second place to good political positioning, and that in the anticipation of a second election in 2010, the parties decided to make PR their punch bag of choice” says Francis Ingham the director of the PRCA.

A party coalition and hopes for economic recovery

The long awaited outcome of the 2010 UK General Election was finally concluded earlier last week after a long weekend of political confusion, discussion and debate.  After thirteen years of doom under New Labour ruling, signified by Spin, Conspiracies and of course the hated Recession – we hope that an alliance between Tory leader Cameron as PM and Lib Dem’s Clegg as deputy will see Britain move into a realm of stability and economic prosperity, with Cameron leading the way to an economic recovery.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition has left many UK businesses and business owners feeling a lot more optimistic about trade and the future stability of the economy. The proposed cuts to the public sector spend may finally give private sector organisations the fuel to prosper again.

A study of business owners and executives by employment law firm Citation (www.citation.co.uk ) found that 63% of business owners believe their company would perform better under the new Con-Lib ruling.

But what is the feeling of business owners and directors in creative industries and other private sector organisations? I sought to do a bit of my own research to see if this figure is representative by asking business executives and directors whether they agreed that UK business would perform better under the new ruling.

The general views reflect the findings of the Citation research. And despite the differing political opinions there is a general consensus of optimism and hope. Clive Sexton’s comments highlight that whilst the government is essentially leading the country and dictating budget and spend within the UK economy, the sustainability of individual businesses and organisations will always be determined by the drive and innovation of their individual leaders and employees.

Ruth Lopardo, Entrepreneur/Founder of www.loveitloveitliveit.co.uk Online Children’s Clothing Store

“My thoughts on the coalition as a business owner are that I’m concerned that the government will be stable enough in the medium term to see the fledgling economic recovery through without tipping the country back in to recession, especially with a Chancellor as inexperienced as George Osborne.   The Conservatives are often seen as the party of business, and whilst the Lib Dems are an unknown quantity in Government they may bring a fresh approach.  However, the current economic situation will give both the Government and businesses a very rocky ride.  The scale of spending cuts proposed by the coalition to cut the budget deficit is also of concern; if lots of customers are losing their jobs or cutting back spending in case they lose their jobs that can only be bad for business.  On a personal note, as a children’s clothing retailer, I would be very much against the application of normal rate VAT to kids clothes, that would be a disaster for my customers and for my business.”

Liz Jackson – MD of Great Guns Marketing www.greatgunsmarketing.co.uk

“I’m very pleased that after much deliberation the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have finally struck a deal. If they can put their differences aside and work for the common good then I see no reason why it shouldn’t be a success. Undoubtedly what we need right now is a government that acts quickly in cutting the deficit, removes the ludicrous ‘jobs tax’ and believes in public sector growth. Also, I think it is good to see wise political minds such as Vince Cable being drafted into the cabinet as he clearly has a vast array of political and financial knowledge that will help lead the British economy from the brink of bankruptcy towards growth.”

Roger Allen, MD of Zeta

“Britain desperately needs a stable government that addresses the issues at hand clearly without the ’spin’ and double speak which was synonymous of New Labour. The new Con-Lib coalition will combine Tory realism with Liberal policies. Political stability and sound financial management are the foundations that businesses need to prosper.” Roger also shared his opinion to leading business website, Business Wings.

Hessia Fernandes, Entrepreneur/Founder of www.cooltribe.com -  Online Green Social network

“The coalition was born more out of need than idealism so I am slightly suspicious of its agenda and its ability to last. But having said that, there is a real opportunity for both parties to make it work.  I am at the moment reserving judgement as we haven’t yet passed the PR/spin phase.  I am genuinely interested to see what happens in the next few weeks.  As a small business, my main point of concern is George Osbourne´s inexperience at managing projects of this scale, after all the economy is in dire straits and it feels like we´ve given the little schoolboy the titanic to captain in a sea full of icebergs.  For my business to grow I need a growing economy where businesses will invest in online marketing so I just hope that the budget deficit cuts don’t put too many people out of work and don’t push businesses to be more cautious with their marketing spend.”

Commenting on the 13^th May 2010, Clive Sexton – Director of leading Global Interim Management Provider –Impact Executives

“49 days to the emergency budget, 4 days to parliament assembling, 11 days to the Queens speech. It is inevitable that there will be significant and major cuts across the Public Sector, inevitable union strife, in addition there are concerns that there will also be civil unrest also across the UK, this has been building for sometime. Unavoidable higher taxes, VAT going up to 20%. So the Private sector just needs to draw a line under it all, look at new markets beyond the UK and Eurozone, where there is growth opportunity and come up with totally new propositions for the UK market and adapt those on a country by country basis and lift itself out very positively of the demise we have been in this past year plus and GO FOR POSTIVE CHANGE AND GROWTH STRATEGIES, which will be driven by INNOVATION.”

Siobhan Bales, Managing Director of Managing Director of bgroup creative agency & bdaily business news network NE – www.thebgroup.co.uk

“The coalition fills me with a real mix of dread and hope. Dread becuase of the fundamental belief systems of each party being so opposed, with liberalism wanting to take more from the self made business people, and Tories rebalancing the tax system to encourage entrepreneurship – business people pushing to grow and develop their businesses to the next level. It is a time when we don’t know the economic support infrastructure for our regions going forward. Will the coalition disbanned the RDAs or Business Links, what will happen to the real spend in 2010/11/12 on public health, tourism and enterprise promotion. All of these decisions will have a significant impact on the strategy of both of my businesses. Hope lives in a new administration, not as tired and wanting to make their mark. Successful business startup and growth sits at the heart of our economic growth in the UK. It is essential to support our businesses and create fast wins, to move confidence and opportunity for growth across our regions. This government may have the right mix to do this”.

Jamie Gavin – Founder of Jay –G Media http://www.jaygmedia.com

“I believe the Conservatives are trying to appeal to small businesses by offering normal incentives like waving N.I contributions for the first registered employee etc – which is all well and good, but I worry that if they are unable to live up to expectations and effectively recover the state of the economy there will be no economy left to operate in under con-lib.”

So what is the future for our industries (Marketing, Digital Communications and PR)?

Did our former government understand the value of the creative industries? My answer is no. They largely failed to demonstrate themselves as good communicators as you can read above. Labour is a great example of when PR goes wrong, and how to not conduct crisis communications!

What about Digital? The report for a digital Britain ensured a strong digital economy by 2020 by promising all broadband access by 2012.  Gordon Brown came across well using industry terms and  knowing exactly what he was talking about and understood the value of digital communications. I personally think it was just web-wash – another ‘promise’ that would never surface if they came to power.

However business owners and executives are hopeful that the new alliance will help British businesses perform better. I guess we have to wait and see…

The verdict was delivered after Labourhome.org owner Alex Hilton was sued by Johanna Kaschke. Kaschke was objecting to a libellous comment which appeared on the labour home site which was written by a user.  The content was accusing her of having had links with Baader-Meinhof, a German terrorist group.

Although Hilton did not write the comment or make it live, the fact that he actively moderated other areas of the website by …”exercise(ing) some editorial control on parts of the website and in particular on the homepage.” held him liable.

Because the web sphere is so diverse, understanding the legalities surrounding websites can often be very complex, and the average user might be a bit worried after reading these claims.

Zeta offers an overview of the situation as well as some helpful tips for blog and site owners who may be concerned about the recent revelations:

Today, many companies run interactive web sites where users can participate and provide comment either through commenting on content or blog posts through to interactive forums and chat rooms.

It has been the norm for most companies to pre-moderate any comments that users make and decide if they are suitable before they are shown on the website. This is particularly important in order to stop spam etc.

The High Court ruling acts as a reminder that you must be aware that you risk losing your safe harbour protections and can become liable for user generated comments that have been posted if you do anything other than just display them as they are submitted.

If you for instance moderate comments and choose if they are displayed, or if you perform any kind of editing or correction of a typo or spelling mistake, then you can no longer be classed as an information storage service and become liable for the user generated content as if it was your own.

Struan Robertson, a legal director with Pinsent Masons LLP and editor of the firm’s legal information site, www.out-law.com claims that when dealing with user generated content libel and copyright infringement are the most common problems.

We asked him, How can site owners who want to keep user interactivity at the heart of their site/blog do so without losing their safe harbour protections?

“The safest approach is to let comments go live without checking them before or after they appear. To be absolutely safe, don’t delete spam or offensive comments unless and until you receive a complaint. As soon as you start to check comments for spam, you run the risk of being liable for other content too. Obviously this approach makes for terrible quality control, and blogs become a spam fest, so there has to be a trade off. Sites that can’t afford to implement technical filters to block spam or profanities are often the ones that receive fewer user contributions – and moderating comments manually may be a risk that the site owner feels is worth taking.”

But as a site owner or publisher there is no need to stop user generated content all together. The safest approach suggested by Struan is really for extreme cases. We believe as long as you are aware of the potential issues you shouldn’t incur any problems.

Sarah Pantry, project manager at Zeta adds:
“So make sure that if you moderate your user generated content that you make sure there is nothing there that you will be held responsible for by not approving anything risky”.

Copyright Infringement
Copyright infringement is another unlawful act common to websites and blogs.  Often arising from republishing someone’s content without permission or using copyrighted images.

When writing content for blogs it is common practice to read other articles/sites online to inform your own content development, but you must be careful not to directly copy any of this content as this would put you at risk of copyright infringement. If you want to use content that someone else has written or said always cite the source and date (e.g. BBC, 2009). Copyscape is a free online tool enabling to scan your own website/blog posts to ensure that your content is original and has not been duplicated by anyone else.

If you find that your content has been duplicated without your permission the first thing to try and do is contact the offending site/user and request that they remove the content. If there is any disagreement or they are uncooperative then you might think about going down the legal route. Check out the Digital Millenium Copyright Act for more information.

However there are certain websites where you CAN directly copy content from: these are normally regarded as free article sites/free press release sites. Cite the original source to be on the safe side if you duplicate any copy from these. Whilst the content may be of interest to your readership audience, something to remember is that using content from free sites may in some instances have less SEO value to your own site because Google tries hard to remove duplicate content from its index .  The SEO experts at Zeta always prefer to use 100% original content.

The use of images is another copyright risk. Avoid using Google image search and copying images to your own blog/site – if there is a particular one you want check the owners website to see if they allow use of images or logos. Many big brands and companies will allow use of their images for PR and related purposes – or you could contact them for permission to use an image.

The best way to ensure your images are legit is to purchase from a stock photography site – there are many online, some give free stock photos. You must ensure you have legal right to use imagery. There are various different ownership options from ‘rights-managed’ to ‘royalty free’ or annual subscriptions. There are plenty of Stock Photography sites that provide great images at various different prices. Try www.gettyimages.com, www.istockphoto.com and www.shutterstock.com.  Getty being the most expensive but at the same time probably provides the best images. The rise of Flickr has born a new generation of young budding photographers that will allow their images to be used to gain more exposure or for a small fee. Why not find a photo on Flickr and get in touch with the author for a cheaper alternative.

Please share your discussions and advice surrounding this topic with us and for the benefit of other users:

Figures tell us that online spending is continuously growing despite the country’s economic slowdown. The trend seems to be that we may be spending less money on Christmas presents but more people will use the internet to purchase their gifts. With 76% of the adult population now using the internet and 64% of those users having made a purchase online (figures from Office for National Statistics), today’s e-commerce sites need to accommodate for a more diverse customer base within a very competitive marketplace.

In order to maximise sales in the run up to Christmas it is therefore vital for online retailers to have implemented an efficient usability strategy for their checkout process. If the website’s checkout process is not clear and easy to use, the online retailer may find a great number of potential customers abandoning their baskets somewhere during this process. Here are some general guidelines on how to make online shopping a more pleasant and successful experience for users:

• Basket or checkout links – Users will expect to easily and quickly find either a ‘proceed to checkout’ link or a ‘view basket’ button. Such a link needs to be in a prominent place above the fold. If it fits into the site’s design it should be included at the top and bottom of all pages.
• Registration & login – For ease of use, customers should be able to use their email address as their user ID and for first time buyers the same form should be used for ordering and registering for an account. Keep required form fields to a minimum and don’t force customers to create an account before they can add items to the basket.
• Additional charges – Display shipping and tax charges early on to save customers from a last minute (nasty) surprise.
• Delivery – At this time of year your delivery details should clearly display when purchases have to be made for pre-Christmas delivery.
• Progress bar – It is helpful to know where you are in the checkout process, what the next step is and how many steps are left to complete the purchase. Customers also like to see the basket and delivery charges throughout the process.
• Distractions – Cross selling and heavy marketing during the checkout only acts as an unnecessary distraction. When customers reach this point they should be left to carry on with their purchase.
• Flexible payment option – Apart from standard card payments, offer other payment options like PayPal and Google checkout. Customers will appreciate being able to use their preferred choice of payment.
• Bring confidence to the buyer by clearly displaying contact information so they know that they can get hold of a human being should something go wrong. Clearly explain delivery details, your security policy and provide sufficient assistance when an error is made. If a purchase is cancelled there should be a clear message showing that a purchase has not been made.

Conforming to accessibility guidelines, like those mentioned above, will not only make the website available to more users but make the site easier to use by everyone. By keeping the site and checkout process simple (but professional) in design and technology you should be left with a stable and fast website compatible with different browsers and versions – and as a result the site will accommodate a wider customer base.

There are many general rules and guidelines that should be applied to a checkout process – but there is not one perfect checkout template suitable for all e-commerce sites. Shopping habits vary between customers and our shopping habits also change over time. Optimising a checkout process is an ongoing procedure that should be continuously fine-tuned with the help of testing, analytics and customer feedback.

Give your followers value

Before you even set up a Twitter account, you must plan a campaign and set goals for what you want to achieve. What is the purpose of your profile and what will your customers gain? If you were a customer what would benefit you? If you wouldn’t want to follow the updates then most probably neither would your customers.

Keep your profile updated with regular tweets, but only if they are useful to your followers. You don’t want to tweet useless updates like “I am hungry” which nobody is interested in. Tweet links to blog posts, discounts, news stories and anything else your customers may find interesting. Once you find a topic that brings in a lot of followers or sparks discussion you can expand on this and even write a follow-up blog post.

Don’t over-tweet and clog up your followers’ profiles because they will most probably be following other companies too. There’s a danger that your tweets may get in the way of other updates and people will just stop following you.

Etiquette

Twitter is not an instant messenger. It is designed to communicate to thousands of users at once. Try to make your tweets appeal to all followers and don’t get stuck in two way conversations. Re-tweet (RT) other relevant tweets which your followers will find valuable. Reply to your followers and find related queries other users might have that you can answer.

Promotion

Use your corporate branding to style your profile so users trust you and don’t think it’s a fake profile. Find other users which are related to your industry and follow them. They might return the favour and in turn pass on their followers.

Research what other people are saying before posting a tweet. Use Twitter Search to see what key phrases are being used and try to include them in your tweets. Use hash tags before and after your key phrases. Tweet at peak times so your tweets don’t get lost. Peak times can vary depending on your industry and country but the majority of users go on just before and after work.

If you have a company blog or website, add a link or feed so that people can see your latest Tweets. Add a link in your email signature.

Tweets

When it comes to writing a tweet, don’t just write “Here is a great article http://bit.ly/crDzc.” Spark conversation by asking a question e.g. “None, sharp, crisp, strong or smooth? Which photoshop anti-aliasing works best? You decide… #photoshop #design http://bit.ly/crDzc.”

Here I have asked a question which will entice followers and hopefully get a response and create even more exposure. I have also added key phrases so it will be picked up in Twitter Search.

Getting the most out of Twitter is a matter of trial and error.  You can only find out what works for your company by trying different approaches.

Guides

Newbie’s guide to Twitter
Twitter Glossary
Hash Tags

Tools

http://bit.ly/ – Use this website to shorten your URLs/Links so you can fit more characters in your tweets.
http://twitpic.com/ – Upload and share photos on Twitter.
http://refollow.com/ – Manage your friends and followers on Twitter.