Scoot Blog

Send Customers Straight To Your Door

It’s all well and good offering discounts and announcing sales to entice customers to your door, but if your online details are incorrect, just whose door will your customers end up at? The rise of online directories has unsurprisingly coincided with the decline in print directory usage, with more people choosing to hide their bulky paper directories at the back of cupboard in favour of a quick internet search for a local business. One thing that IS surprising is the number of UK businesses that have yet to realise just how important it is to make sure that their details are correct and up-to-date across the web, with a staggering 40% of all online business information either incorrect or incomplete.

Appearing in the local search results is an important goal for any business; however incorrect details could result in a loss of potential business. When listing your business on a directory site it is important to remember that the devil really is in the detail. Whether you have yet to list your business, or you are planning an online spring clean, make sure you follow our top tips.

CHECK YOUR OWN WEBSITE

If you’re about to add your details to a business directory the first thing to do is make a quick pit stop at your own business website. Note down the physical address, phone number, URL and even the full name of the business. Ensuring that all directory listings contain exactly the same data is incredibly important and helps promote a business within the search engines. It is easy to make a simple typo but if that typo leads customers to 10 High Street instead of 100 High Street, it could soon prove costly!

DOUBLE CHECK ALL THE ADVERTS YOU HAVE SET UP

The shift from print to online advertising has brought with it several benefits to business, one of which is the ability to press that all important edit button to rectify a mistake. Spending money on an paper based advert is all well and good but when you realise that your phone number is missing an all important digit there’s nothing that you can do. On the other hand, a mistake made on an online listing can be swiftly rectified as long as you take the time to check and double check your listing once it is live!

KEEP CHECKING BACK

Once your online directory listings are live it is important to keep on top of them, make a note of which directories you have submitted your information to and either check yourself or allocate the responsibility to a member of staff. It is rare that all business information will stay the same forever therefore if you do move premises or switch phone numbers, make sure you make the necessary changes as soon as you can. If you don’t have the time to keep track of all of your directory listings NetTrackz is a fantastic way to view and amend all of your listings in one place.

GET SOCIAL

The rise of social media is also playing an important role in making sure that your online directory presence is as strong as possible. If you spend a lot of time tweeting and sharing information on Facebook make sure you check to see if any of your online directory listings include a space to post your profile URL or username. Scoot offers a handy social tab that provides customers with an up-to-date Twitter feed and a Facebook profile view.

Online directories are already proving to be a valuable starting point for anyone looking to search the web for a local business, and are fast becoming a vital asset for small business owners wishing to increase their web presence. With 96% of business owners agreeing that 2012 will see print directory usage among under 50’s plummet to zero*, what better time to get a head start with its online counterpart?

For more information on how to get the most out of online directories why not follow Scoot on Twitter for daily news, hints and tips?

*Touch Local Business Poll 2011

Get involved now and receive a £50 voucher!

It’s safe to say that paper business directories are still proving their worth across the UK. Can’t reach the tops of those dusty kitchen shelves? Simply stand on top of a directory and hey presto, dust be gone! Can’t bring yourself to pick up that spider that’s been tormenting the household for a week? Your paper directory just became your number one weapon. There are countless other ways for people to really get the most out of these once invaluable marketing sources but unfortunately quickly searching for a local business just isn’t one of them.

The decline of print directory usage is in stark contrast to the rise of online directories. In today’s world people want instant information and with more people finding themselves attached to a monitor or mobile phone screen, the internet is the most popular place to find it. As well as being a quicker and more efficient way of searching for a local product or service, online directories provide businesses themselves with a clearer view of their return on investment. It’s almost impossible for a business to find out just how many people have viewed their advert in a magazine or newspaper however an internet campaign enables advertisers to track and measure the success of their ad.
Time and money aside, think about how many chunky directories you have had squeezed through your letterbox or left behind your plant pot over the years. Here is what the print of 75 million phonebooks in the UK costs:

• 680,000 barrels of oil (not including the wasted petrol used for their delivery)
• 2 billion litres of water
• Enough energy to power 112,000 3 bedroom houses for one year

If you have already spent part of your marketing budget on print media advertising do not despair! We’ve decided to make sure that businesses finally get something out of their print media advertising by holiday our first advert amnesty. Simply find your advert in a paper directory, newspaper or magazine, take a picture of it and send it to us via email, Facebook or Twitter. If you prefer you can even rip out your advert and post it to us! In return we will send you a voucher for £50 worth of Scoot advertising*, as one of the leading UK directories Scoot is the perfect platform to really make sure your business gets the attention it deserves!

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Email: Kathryn@scoot.co.uk

Post:
Scoot Marketing
Scoot House
19 Falcon Court
Preston Farm Industrial Estate
Stockton-On-Tees
Cleveland
TS18 3TU

*Voucher redemption is subject to a minimum spend of £100.

Are you making your customers feel special?

Special offers are a great way to get customers to your door but if you find that your ‘free Parker pen’ incentive just isn’t cutting it anymore, it may be time for a change. Here at Scoot we know exactly how effective a good special offer can be which is why we offer every business the chance to publish a free special offer on their listing. If you are running out of ideas as to how to entice more customers to your business, take a look at our top tips for setting up a successful special offer!

Everyone loves a freebie!
If you give something away for free you will no doubt catch the attention of bargain hungry customers; however freebies won’t necessarily help your business. This is where offers such as the traditional BOGOF (buy 1 get 1 free) come into play; a good BOGOF using a quality product will increase sales whilst allowing customers to feel that they have come away with a great value deal.

In it to win it!
Awaken the competitive spirit within your customers by launching a competition. Whether you run a small bakery or a multi million pound car dealership, a prize is a great way to grab your customer’s attention. Social media is a fantastic asset when running a competition, why not make the 100th Twitter follower your winner or get entrants to share your competition on Facebook?

Be Child friendly
Holiday companies, restaurants and hotels- take note. One of the most popular special offers for this industry is ‘children eat/fly/stay free!’ and is a great way to increase the number of families choosing you above your competitors.

Roll out the welcome mat
It’s always great to reward your existing customers but how do you go about gaining new ones? An exclusive ‘new customer’ discount is perfect for increasing your new customer levels especially if you capitalize on social media channels to publicize your deal. Whether it’s 20% off their first purchase or free delivery on their first order, everyone likes to feel that they are being welcomed with open arms.

Feeling inspired by our top tips, why not add a Special offer to your Scoot listing today?

Blog your way to a better business

One of the most useful forms of communication for any business is a blog. With over 1 million blog posts written every day, whether you are using your blog to announce new products, keep your customers up-to-date or to just as way to keep in touch, you are definitely not alone! More and more active internet users now read blogs and many businesses now view their blog as their most valuable form of social media. If you have yet to venture in blogging territory why not take a look at our top reasons to start typing.

1. Blogs are now viewed as a mainstream source of communication for businesses and are very search engine friendly! Maintaining a blog is one of the fastest (and cheapest) ways to increase your business’ online exposure.

2. It’s not just customers that you can reach with your blog posts. Research shows that blogs are widely read within the B2B community with even senior management team members visiting company blog sites.

3. More and more companies are replacing monthly email newsletters with regular blog posts as they are easy to create and are instantly interactive. Traditional email newsletters can suffer from low deliverability rates thanks to over cautious spam filters whereas blog posts are easily accessible and sharable!

4. Although blogs don’t tend to draw a large audience, they do attract a highly targeted readership. If your blog contains quality, informative content it will be seen as a valuable resource within your industry.

So what are you waiting for? Start communicating with your business world today!

Twitter Poll results

Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has taken the world by storm, providing users with a platform to post information, interact with others and keep up-to-date on the latest news.  With over 200 million users as of 2011, Twitter has established itself as a valuable marketing tool for any business. This week we asked local business owners;*

Do you use Twitter to reach more customers?

The poll showed that 62% of business owners did not use Twitter as a way to reach more customers, whilst 38% were taking advantage of the site as a way to attract new customers to their business.

Of the 38% of business owners that did use Twitter to reach their customer, 90% managed their Twitter accounts themselves, with the remaining 10% either allocating time to employees or using an outside agency. When asked about any challenges they face when using Twitter, it seems that many businesses have embraced the word of tweets and retweets with 41% of business owners finding no challenges what so ever. 15% admitted to understanding how the site works but find it hard to decide just how to make the most of the 140 character limit!

Finding time to Tweet

For many business owners, finding the time to start utilising social media can be one of the biggest reasons why many choose to ignore it. Of the 62% of business owners who did not use Twitter to reach their customers, 44% cited having no time as their biggest reason for not logging in whereas 56% of business owners admitted that they just don’t understand how to use it.  Out of the businesses that do use Twitter to reach their customers, 70% spend less than an hour a day updating their customers on their latest news, products and services whilst just 10% rely on a weekly check up.

From this survey it seems that although more businesses were yet to explore just how Twitter could benefit their business, those that do were able to reach their customers without facing any significant challenges and without it eating up too much of their time.

For the latest hints and tips on how to increase your business’ online exposure follow Scoot on Twitter! @Scoot_IT

*290 respondents. Data source- Touch Local

Is your website turning customers away?

Your company website is one of the first things that your customers will see, so why risk them instantly rushing to click the ‘close’ button? So many companies are guilty of committing at least one of our top ten website turn offs, make sure your business is not one of them!

1. Advert overload

There is nothing wrong with having adverts on your website however there is a not so fine line between carefully selected, relevant adverts and glaring banners offering everything from miracle weight loss cures to cheap holiday deals. When accepting adverts on your site it is important to make sure that they fit in with the tone of the site and do not disrupt the user’s browsing experience.

2. Attack of the pop-up

Is there anything more annoying that clicking onto a webpage only to have your screen bombarded with pop up after pop up? Although most people will (hopefully) have an effective pop up blocker in place, those that do fine their browser full of pop up adverts will most probably head for the hills (well the ‘x’ button anyway)

3. Badly written copy

When you are putting together a website it is easy to get carried away with flashy graphics and stylish videos however the most basic aspect of any webpage is what it actually says. If the copy on your website is badly written, this will immediately give your customers a negative view of the company. Spellcheck is definitely your friend when writing content for your site however it helps to double and even triple check for any spelling or grammar errors before you press ‘publish’.

4. Get to the point

Filling your website content with sales jargon and details of all of the awards the company has won may look impressive however what use is telling potential customers that you are a ‘dynamic, innovative, award winning company’ when they don’t know what it is you do? It is easy to get carried away with the synonym tool however this is useless if you omit the most basic information. Ensure that your ‘about me’ page is crystal clear, if in doubt ask an independent party for their opinion.

5. Slow loading

With so many people paying for fast internet, having to wait what can often feel like an age for a webpage to load can have many people instantly reaching for the ‘X’. Experts state that the ideal load time for a webpage should be no longer than 1-2 seconds, if your site is taking longer make sure you take the time to check what is holding it back.

6. Out of date information

Any out of date information on your site could be detrimental to your company. For example, if a customer uses your site to find an address for your store yet you have actually moved premises this will not go down well with the potential customer stood staring into an empty shop window. If your business details change it is vital to update your website as soon as possible. Similarly if you have a special offer or a price section on your site, avoid red faces at the till by keeping them up to date.

7. If you’re not on the list…

If you have ever been stopped on the street and asked for your details to sign up for a catalogue or a charity donation you will understand the frustration of a web user being held back by a ‘registration form’. A web page that requires a user to enter their details before even viewing the home page may gain valuable email data however it will also lose frustrated potential customers.

8. X marks the spot

If you do decide to allow full page adverts on your site, make sure that you do not forget the number one rule! Many companies design their full page adverts to make it as difficult as possible for users to actually close them and see the site that’s hiding underneath. If a customer ends up playing a game of ‘Where’s Wally?’ with the ‘X’ button, chances are they won’t be in a buying frame of mind when they finally get past it.

9. Colour clash

You may think that changing your font colour to neon yellow against a bright white background is ‘cutting edge’ however when your customers have to squint to read about your latest special offers the only thing they will come away with is a headache. Stick with colours and backgrounds that complement each other and are easy to read, there’s a reason why black/white is a classic!

10. Bored now…

Your company could sell self lacing trainers or trees that actually grow £50 notes however if your website is about as interesting as a paper bag your customers will soon lose interest. Keep your content short and snappy, complimenting it with relevant, high quality images. Engage with your customers through a regularly updated blog and communicate with them through your social media profiles.

Your website is your online shop window so clear away the dust, get out the Windolene and make sure your company really shines through!

Tweet Tweet!

It seems like everyone is tweeting nowadays, celebrities, politicians, local authorities and most importantly your customers. If your business has yet to embrace the world of ‘hashtags’ and ‘retweets’ you are missing out on the millions of customers that are already finding local businesses and services through what is fast becoming one of the world’s largest social networks. The value of Twitter for a business of any size is immeasurable, the micro-blogging site enables businesses to interact and engage with customers whilst generating a buzz about the company through 140 character updates. Here at Scoot we absolutely love Twitter and our team are always on hand to help out with anything that you need plus all of the latest news and updates from the world of business.

Join the social media revolution

As a business it has become almost impossible to ignore the impact that social media has had on how we choose to reach our customers. With the whole word seemingly tweeting, liking and now +1(ing) everything from customer service to special offers, viewing social media as a fad is one of the biggest mistakes a business can make. If you have yet to even dip your toe into the world of social media, here are our three top tips to getting started!

1. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

Although it may be tempting to set up your profiles and dive headfirst into tweets and status updates, take the time to think about what you want to achieve from social media. If you are looking to increase brand awareness why not research some of the key issues in business and join the conversations about them on Twitter? If you are looking to attract new customers why not advertise an exclusive special offer on your Facebook page or Tweet out a promotional code to your followers. The most basic aspect of social media is sharing so make sure you take the time to share information that your customers will actually want to read. Blog posts, funny viral videos and or even pictures of new products will soon get the ball rolling and the followers pouring in.

2. Keep going!

If after a week or so you haven’t got the 1000’s of followers that you expected, try and resist the temptation to close the laptop and never speak of Twitter or Facebook again. In order to grow successful social media profiles you need to dedicate time and resources. Sharing out the responsibility is a great way to get more of your team interested in social media and will ensure that there is always a steady stream of information being posted.

3. Spread the love

Whether you are Team Twitter of a Facebook fan, one of the most important things to remember about social media is that you need to cover all of your bases. There are programs available that will send a post to all of your social media platforms however it is best to cater different posts for different sites. Utilise #hashtags when using Twitter to get the maximum effect and take advantage of the extended character limits on Facebook to give your customers all of the information that they need.

Effective marketing has always been considered as the growth engine of a business. But do UK SMEs also share the same opinion?

Touch Local carried out a poll amongst a sample of UK small business owners, to find out if they had set a marketing budget for 2011, and what forms of marketing do they consider to be the most effective.

The Survey

Does your business have a set Marketing budget for 2011?

The Results

*Total responses: 852

Summary

More than a third (38%) of business owners who took the survey, confirmed that they have a marketing budget for 2011. Many of them also specified that the budget was limited, due to the fact that they do not have any excess in their capital to dedicate to marketing.
Most of the respondents (62%) stated that they did not have a set marketing budget for 2011.

More information acquired from business owners who have a set marketing budget:

- In the current “challenging” economic climate, it’s not surprising that 65% of UK SMEs have an annual marketing budget of less than £5,000. Only 2% of the respondent stated that they are planning to spend more than £100,000 on marketing activities in 2011.
- Overall, it seems that there is a definite shift towards online advertising:
- 80% of business owners felt that investing in a website had a high priority when allocating their marketing budget
- One in 3 of the respondents placed high importance on advertising in online business directories, versus only 1 in 10 for print directories. What’s more, 60% of small business owners stated that they were not planning to spend any of their marketing budget on print directory advertising
- Nearly half of the survey respondents are placing high priority on search engine marketing and 1 in 3 on email marketing
- When it comes to advertising in newspapers and through leaflets, 23% consider it to be a high priority and 16% are not planning to spend any marketing budget on these in 2011.
- Other type of advertising, such as video, direct mail and telemarketing have predominantly low to medium priority

More information acquired from business owners who do not have a set marketing budget:

- Even though 62% of SMEs have no marketing budget for 2011 most of them could end up squeezing their budgets for marketing or advertising.
- However there is major shift in the approach of advertising with majority of the respondents willing to invest in their company website (61%), followed by SEO (27%), email (23%).
- When it comes to advertising on business directories, 18% of businesses would invest in online business directories compared to only 10% in print directories which is more or less as expected.
- Interestingly, 53% of the respondents will not advertise using Video, reasons being the high production and distribution costs.
- Only 1 in 8 of respondents would advertise through Social Media, citing lack of time and resource as a reason.
- Other types of advertising like direct mail pay per call services and telemarketing was low in priority.

Reviewing the entire survey, we realize that regardless of having a marketing budget or not, SMEs throughout UK share the same outlook and are investing in a more modern channel rather than the traditional method of marketing. They acknowledge that the difficulty to quantify the effectiveness has forced them to the shift away from the more traditional forms of marketing towards web based marketing mediums as it is seen to attain better returns.

Some of the comments from the respondents:

I’m a sole trader and I keep my overheads down to the absolute minimum. Word of mouth has also worked very well for me.

The ‘marketing industry’ has become so large, complex and full of spam that it is now impossible to quantify effects of many of these so-called marketing campaigns.

I have in 40 plus years of running my business & always spent around 3% to 4% of turnover on advertising. I would spend more on good leads that generate profitable business.

SEO has now been made a dominant factor in website success that many of us use our websites to direct our existing customers rather than seek out new ones.

Over the past 5 years of trading we know where we get the better results from our efforts and pursue those. Regular monitoring of incoming trade means we adjust our budgets accordingly.

From experience printed advertising is a dying medium. Our best returns have come from promoting our own website and SEO work.

Due to the current climate, we do not have any excess capital to spend on advertising of any kind.

Making marketing a priority and putting it on our wish list does not necessarily mean that funding will become available whilst high street sales are still struggling.

Due to very poor levels of business we don’t have much money to spare for this at the moment. The recession is still hitting us hard.

Paper advertising hardly works for me anymore, and is too expensive, our website is Key.

Over the years I have found most advertising to be a waste of money. I have tried everything from cards in supermarkets, directories, charity posters, but none even cover the cost of the advertising. Website and word of mouth are the only functional methods for my business.

I find the cost of advertising very high in most publications with little or no reward. I would welcome information on how to use email marketing.

Networking is another valuable marketing avenue. I am a member of a national networking group and I’m hoping this will be useful in 2011.

For more information about Touch Local, please contact anju.palleeri@touchlocal.com or call 020 7840 4313

The Royal Wedding is estimated to have boosted the UK economy by £2bn, but what was its impact on the small business industry? Touch Local carried out a poll amongst a sample of UK small business owners, to find out whether they benefited from the event, or on the contrary, did they actually suffer losses?

The Survey

What kind of an effect do you consider the Royal Wedding to have had on your business?

The Results

*Total responses:            956

Summary

Nearly half (48%) of the small business owners who participated in this survey claimed that the Royal Wedding had no effect on their business. On the whole, they stated to have not noticed any significant change in the output or revenue of their business.

On the other hand, 41% of respondents believe that their businesses have been affected negatively, with many stating that the extra long weekend had a noticeable impact on their revenue.

Only 11% believe the Royal Wedding to have had a positive impact on their business, many of them saying that the boost in customer and employee morale, resulting from the Royal Wedding, has influenced their revenue positively.

Some of the comments from the respondents:

The boost in employee and customer morale is bound to be good.

Courier service disruption has resulted in customer dissatisfaction.

The Prime Minister purchased my Anglesey Books as his personal gift to the Royal Couple and it has resulted in huge exposure and increased sales.

With clients closed for the day, there was no demand for support, which would in turn pay staff costs.

As the government had decided to declare the day to be a bank holiday and our contract terms state that staff are allowed 21 days plus bank holidays, this day cost us a considerable amount of money, which we are unable to recoup.

In the current economic climate, I believe this wedding to be a shameful waste of time and money.

The Royal Wedding and the resulting long weekend has had a significantly negative impact on our revenue.

Friday is normally a very busy day but it was quiet because people thought we were closed.

Delays in receipt of ordered supplies (also due to other holidays at Easter and May day)

It was not just the wedding, but the number of holidays meant that clients weren’t making decisions, starting projects, etc.

The Company had to virtually shut down, as either our employees took additional days holiday, or our customers did.