Monday, we talked about strategy vs plan. Today’s post is all about the plan and what it should include. This is based on a traditional Marketing plan. Now we are talking about online business and PR here. Let’s not forget, but this kind of plan can be implemented as such, as long as the bones are all in place! It should include: Details of your product or service and its Unique Selling Point Pricing Target Market Analysis Sales and distribution plan Advertising and promot

One couldn’t have a marketing blog without flagging this one up. Maybe you haven’t come across this one. I think this is one of the best pieces of PR I have seen in such a long time. Little Lily wrote a letter to Mr Sainsburys asking him why the Tiger bread was named so, as she thought it more resembled a giraffe. I actually quite agree with you Lily and so did Lily’s mum. She thought it was so cute that she posted it up in her blog. Now I very much doubt that Lily’s mum rea

I read an article presented by openpressiwire.com in 2009 only the other day, entitled “ You’re NOT a social media expert, you idiot” by Joel Mackey. It caught my attention, I suppose in the tiny, yet natural part of life, when you suddenly think you are faking what you do for a living! Good old self-doubt! I digress. It was a good article. It made me both angry and nod in agreement. Mr Mackey talks about how many have jumped on the bandwagon of social media and are now

Our Wednesday post comes from Chris Brooker ( @codecraftonline ) a professional web development company based in Leeds, UK. 2012 will be the year of social search. When Google created their first search engine, they had no idea how to make money from it. The answer turned out to be incredibly simple, since they know what you’re interested in, and what you’re thinking about at the moment your fingers hit the keyboard. For instance, if you’re thinking of buying a new car, an

To Chris Booker, Codecraft Online Ltd (@codecraftonline) For helping a lady out with a headline! Our shiny new OPT banner is down to him! Blogpost from Chris, www.codecraft.co.uk coming in the next month or so… #codecraft #SocialMedia #webdevelopment

As we mentioned on Monday, if people trust people and are less likely to trust companies the personal brands of people, possibly within a company are really worth exploring. They can portray a personal and trustworthy message and become assets to that company. Look at the Halifax man , Howard Brown! A usual employee of The Halifax Bank becomes a superstar! (As much as we immediately took a dislike to him, everything he stood for was ‘the man next door’). It will be rememb

Contact me if you would like me to review your site or write a guest blog for me! Forthcoming subjects: 1. Predictions for social media and online PR for 2012 2. Backlinks 3. Marketing Plans #onlineprtips #onlinemarketing #digitalmarketing #SocialMedia #Blogging

Imagine your brand as the camera on your iPhone 4s. One side of the lens you have the consumer and the other, you. This is where you both interact. How you present your company, how perceptions are made and how connections merge to create the substance that is your brand. Mostly you are judged on these 4 things; The definition of your brand How you communicate How you interact and network And lastly, the way in which you present yourself and deliver As we touched on yester

This week is all about Digital Branding. Kind, grade, or make, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like: the best brand of coffee. Or as David Ogilvy said; “The intangible sum of a product’s attributes: it’s name, packaging and price, its history, its reputation and the way its advertised.” The father of advertising’s mantra followed these four basic principles, Research Professional discipline Creative brilliance Results for clients With online PR taking such a great

We’ve put together a small list of respectable blogs suggested by our readers (and one or two from OPT!) http://purple.us/blog . Suggested by @purplecomm. An informative blog from the US with a mix of ASL and English content. http://digitalbrandmarketing.com/ Suggested by @basilpuglisi. They write about anything from social media to branding to mobile technology. Jonathan Payne @socialgameplan gives a shout out to @lewishowes. Claiming that after watching 2 of his videos, hi

We’ve talked about blogging this week. You should now be at a point where you can safely post something up online consistently. Sharing your blog is the next step. There are now great sites to help you distribute your blog. And this year is it ALL about GREAT CONTENT! I’ll talk about this more in the coming weeks but PLEASE take the time and write good stuff! Really give this a lot of thought and look at what your competitors are blogging about. Make yours better, richer

Nothing comes easy and blogging doesn’t just happen. you have to dedicated yourself to writing one and work out how much time you can spend doing it. This can be an aspect of determining what kind of blog you can present. You certainly don’t just get followers overnight, believe me, even if you are giving away product – its hard! 1. Do strive to produce great content as that is the best way to attract followers. 2. Do think about what grabs you to a post, o

If you are an advanced blogger, start thinking about your yearly campaign. If you remember, back when we were talking about ‘ planning your time ’ it’s so important to plan before you write. Anyway – back to you guys that are just starting out. You need to decide; a) What do you wish to achieve from your blog? b) How you wish your blog to be perceived? c) Will you write a monthly and give out a lot of info? d) Will you write a daily bite size offering? e) I

Welcome to 2012! How’s the head?! OPT have talked mostly about social media and how it can help your business. We hopefully all know now that it is unavoidable. You just have to make the decision to either employ someone to look after it or adapt and introduce new jobs into your daily routines. Let’s begin this year, by hammering home some mega easy and positive steps towards getting your business out there online in 2012. Honing its online presence and giving your baby a r

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging! #SocialMedia

I would like to thank our followers and wish all our readers a very happy and restful Christmas and a prosperous New Year! I also hope that I have started an informative and exciting development service for you to add to your weekly reading lists. If you would like to provide content on this blog or collaborate in any way, shape or form. then please get in touch! Here’s to 2012! Andrea #socialcommunities #SmallBiz #thinkandtweetlater #Twitter #socialmediaplanning #onlineprtip

There are many pros and cons to choosing your own name for your business. I have struggled with this question for years but stuck with my own personal name for many reasons. The most important being, that I had a ready-made audience. Obviously your name gives a certain personality to a company, product or service and many clients prefer that personal touch. Therefore it can work in your favour in many industries. If you remember my blog ‘The Art of Self Promotion (1 of 5) ’

If you are using the wrong domain name for your business, product or service, you should seriously think about changing it now! You could be missing out on quite a hefty amount of free marketing. Ask yourself these questions: Is it easy to spell and remember? Is it your own personal name that is hard to spell and remember? Does it contain a dot or slash in it anywhere? Does your domain name contain word repetition? And are the words spelled differently? Is it similar to anoth

We have discovered that your name is really important for online marketing but how does it actually affect your strategy? Simple. A good name will allow you to be flexible and creative in your marketing plans. This is not about design, although if you are a business that is lead by good design, this will also need to be reflected in your name. We loved this article” Pandecta Magazine http://www.pandecta.com , although written in 2009 – many of the issues remain the same. Bu

As mentioned yesterday, your business name/domain name could be the only thing that is holding you back from getting the traffic you need to succeed online. I have spoken with brand experts who believe that names should be almost a blank canvas, in which to build the image of your business upon. Some swear by a coined name that are made up of ‘halves of words joined together. I believe that any name can be fabulous, as long as it is justified with an appropriate marketing s