Web Marketing Course
Making the most of Internet Marketing
The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in the
marketing of all businesses. Statistics show a dramatic increase in
online commercial activity and a new course run by the BMF has been
established to allow members to make the most of the new
opportunities to promote their businesses online and maximise sales
potential.
The new BMF Web Marketing course is run by Nigel T Packer of
Business for Business, an Internet Marketing Training and
Consultancy company. Nigel says Internet Marketing is a subject
which many businesses need to focus on in today's competitive
marketplace. "Over 90% of websites set up by UK businesses don't
fulfill the expectations of their owners or provide the services
customers want," he comments.
As the training course reassuringly shows, the solutions are
much more manageable and less expensive than people might think.
"Making just small changes to a website can levitate names to the
top of a search engine for example," adds Nigel. "Also websites
need to go back to the basic principles about the importance of the
customer."
A key aspect of the course underlines the need to look at a
website from the users' perspective. This means removing any
features which can frustrate or create barriers to visitors – it's
all too easy to click that back button and go somewhere else. It is
also important to avoid being formulaic in the layout of a site.
Often companies make the mistake of completely handing over the
design of a website to a third party who may not know much about
the marine industry or more specifically the needs of the business.
Businesses also need to give less of a priority to aspects such as
corporate information which frankly may not be relevant to the
customer.
Nigel sums up the message: "The site from day one should be
looking at how we can provide information which customers are
looking for so that they can engage with our business and either
contact us or make a purchase from our website." And those
purchases are growing all the time. "In the UK alone in the first 6
months of this year £26.5 billion was spent online which represents
17% of all UK sales," says Nigel. "Forecasters predict that 50% of
all retail sales will be online in the next 5 years."
Whether a company sells or promotes products and services via a
website, the Internet as a marketing tool is one of the most
economical ways of reaching customers. But it can also be a drain
on the marketing budget if the money is spent in the wrong places.
Sign up to the BMF Web Marketing Course and start making the most
out of your website and, marketing budget, now.
How to make the most of your website
A company website is a powerful marketing
tool, but how to make it as effective as possible poses its own
challenges. Which sort of layout will work best for your
business and what sort of things should you be talking to your web
designer about? How do you increase your profile with search
engines? When people visit your site how are you going to keep them
interested? All these questions and many more are covered by the
Web Marketing Training Course run by the BMF.
Loretta Cuoghi of Harken UK recently attended
the course and says it was particularly helpful in the re
development of their website, which features Harken sailing wear
and accessories. “We were in the middle of revamping our site and
the course was good because it gave us a lot of pointers that we
otherwise wouldn’t have known about,” says Loretta. “It cleared up
a lot of the confusion and it was really interesting learning about
how to improve people’s searches for example.”
Loretta is part of the marketing team at
Harken and says that the website is going to be playing an
increasingly important role in their marketing strategy in the
future. “We’re going away from printed adverts to having more of an
online presence with other online media,” she commented. “So the
website is something we want to be constantly aware of and improve
on.”
To do this they have employed the services of
a web design company and attending the course gave the team at
Harken a much better understanding of how to brief the designer.
“It gave us the tools to be able to put together an agenda
regarding the things we want to discuss,” says Loretta. She adds
that not everything on the course was about new ideas, but going on
it gave them the opportunity to really concentrate specifically on
how the they want the website to work: “A lot of it is common sense
really, but having somebody point things out, clear up areas of
uncertainty and reiterate what needs to be done really helps focus
the mind.”
The Web Marketing course is run by Nigel
Packer of Business for Business, an Internet Marketing Training and
Consultancy company. It is not a technical course, and those
attending do not need any prior knowledge of website development or
internet marketing. Delegates will also receive Nigel’s new
book ‘Internet Marketing – How to get a website that works for your
business.”
The course initially ran over a half day but
due to its success it is now a day course. As with all training
courses, time is undoubtedly going to be an issue for some
companies who may like the sound of getting a more dynamic website,
but feel they just can’t spare the time for staff to attend.
Loretta says however that in her experience any time spent training
is time well spent. “If we decide we need to go on a BMF
course then we always make the time for it and make it a priority,”
she concludes. “We also went on a BMF Customer Service course
specifically for a Boat Show and we find it is always really worth
making time for the courses and we have never been
disappointed.”