Did we mention that we love Christmas?

Oh we did? Well sorry to bore you but we really do …..so is it any surprise that December 1^st was the evening of the One to Three Christmas ‘do.’

We have been friends for longer than we’ve been business partners so going out for a meal and a bottle of bubbly is certainly no hardship and with our two biggest fans (our husbands) at our sides a great night was had.

The Arbour in Pinkneys Green, Maidenhead http://www.thearbourgroup.co.uk

was our chosen destination and the evening went without a hitch (two years ago Lisa set fire to her menu so we did quite well really!)

As we always do when we socialize together we had a blast, drank a little too much (but it is Christmas) ate far too much (see previous excuse) and laughed a lot!

We often say we love what we do and a big part of that is because we love each other (sorry to gush, but again it is Christmas) and working together has been a lovely bonus to a friendship that is well into its second decade. We know, we don’t look old enough!!

Most importantly we raised our glasses to all of our wonderful clients who continue to support us so thank you and Merry Christmas!

Counting down to Christmas with One to Three……

We love Christmas here at One to Three and come 1^st December our halls will be decked and mince pies will replace biccies for elevensies!

We also see it as a great opportunity to communicate with past and present clients – and the odd hot prospect too.

Fascinating research by the Harvard Business School shows that the probability of selling services to a prospective customer is 1 in 16. However, the probability of selling services to a current customer is 1 in 2. 


New business development is important of course but businesses still tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time on new client acquisition and ignore their existing client base.


Spreading the season’s goodwill is a great excuse to get in touch with your clients. You don’t have to send expensive gifts, how about a Christmas card, a seasonal blog post, an email campaign or even a social media campaign.

We have all of our Christmas communications nicely planned….our cards are written and our gifts are wrapped…..there’s also something that we really think will make people smile…..watch this space… we’ll keep you posted!

Watch Claire in action at the WIBN

Some of you will know that I am Chair of the Women In Business Network Maidenhead group - it's a role I absolutely love and networking has been the lifeblood of One to Three since we launched back in 2010.

I was given the opportunity to present the five minute spotlight at the October meeting and as much of my work lately has been refreshing websites for all manner of businesses I chose to share my top tips on what content I consider to be the must haves. I'd like to share this presentation with you all as one of my fellow members, the wonderful Ann Rennie was on hand to video the session!

It's just over five minutes long so grab a cuppa and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGFEkSlSeHg&feature=plcp

Our must have's when it comes to website content

OK, a few facts and figures to start.....

Did you know:

  

• The first domain name was registered …….. 1985 (I was 9!!)

• There are approximately 150,000 new domain names registered every day!

•  When I Googled the question how many websites are there on the www….the number was so  huge it took me a while to work it out…..let’s just say its billions and billions!

•  The most Googled search term is…..Facebook!

•  Google is the 5^th most googled search term……

  

I think we can all conclude that the internet is HUGE and it should form a huge part of your marketing plan  - and of course it’s not just your website that is important but your presence on social media sites, networking websites….have you ever Googled yourself to see what comes up……it’s a good idea to do it because that is what potential customers will find if they Google your name……

I could write all day about the importance of a general online presence but this blog is going to focus on website copy and will give you our top 5 tips of what content we believe is must have.

1       Now this sounds obvious but you’d be surprised….contact details. Telephone  numbers, address, email and also Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn details. People are  more and more wanting to find out a bit about you online before they pick up the phone or drop you an email.

2      What do you do? So many websites don’t tell you this vital information. Write this ‘about you’ section as if you are introducing yourself to someone at a networking event for the very first time. Don’t try to be ‘clever’ or too creative here – get to the point!

3     YOU! It is so important to have a personal presence on your website – a bit about you. It doesn’t have to be a chapter and verse life story but an insight into you as a human being is key - I also like to see pictures of the people involved in the business  to add a personal element

      REAL case studies……show off a bit! Tell the world about your business successes and ask clients for  testimonials that can be published online– case studies demonstrate you in action and can be very powerful

      Simplicity – don’t use 10 words when 1 will do! Don’t use jargon, don’t use fluff to fill a page – a good image will say far more than ‘gumf’!

Once you have the basics in place it is then important to think about how people are gong to find your website and how you are going to keep it up to date……but that’s a whole other blog which we’ll share with you soon!

Ending the year with a bang.....

 

The calendar here at One to Three HQ is bulging with appointments right up to the end of the year and although we ‘shut up shop’ for Christmas, we don’t down tools until the very last minute of our working year.

It can be tempting to see the last quarter of the year as a fight to the finish line and making it through another year but we have found that quarter 4 is actually a great time to ramp up your activity and end the year with a bang not a pop! We practice what we preach to our clients and we are investing our time in not only servicing our wonderful array of clients but to building our new business contacts and networking.

This week alone we have met with two local companies who are interested in partnering with us (watch this space) and have had a number of new business enquires thanks to word of mouth recommendations.  Lisa has also run our first ever Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) workshop, with great feedback from the client and Claire has added advertising copy to her portfolio of copywriting skills!

Networking has been the life-blood of our business (over half of our clients have come from business networking) and it is thanks to online networking, via a local business group, that we can announce our newest client, the inspiring Elevate Associates Ltd. Claire and Lisa will be working  with the Elevate team over the coming months to build awareness of their leadership and business coaching expertise via their website, social media and PR. You can find out more about Elevate Associates Ltd on their website www.elevateassociates.co.uk

We intend to end our year with a bang – do you?

We wanna hold your hand!!!

Please sing this blog’s headline to the tune of the well know Beatles song!! Thank you!!

But why do we want to hold your hand – well having a hand to hold is comforting isn’t it? A romantic stroll holding hands, a walk to school holding hands with your child – how lovely! 

Yes you say but what’s this got to do with a business blog……

Okay, let’s get to the point – many clients have employed us in recent months to hold their hand as they dip their toe into the ocean of social media. We are there to guide them, teach them, develop strategies with them and answer questions which almost always begin with, “I know this might be a silly question, but………”

Whenever you are trying something new it’s nice to know you’ve got someone to turn to with those “silly questions” who can give you the answers and help you along the way. 

We work with some clients on an ongoing basis, managing their social media strategy day-to-day but with others we will work with them for one or two months, getting them started, building their confidence…..holding their hands!

If you’d like to find out more about how we can offer a bit of comfort and familiarity in what can be a scary online world please contact us via info@onetothree.co.uk

We're all going on a Summer Holiday......

......no more worries for a week or two!!!

Or is keeping in touch with your clients worrying you?

Many of our clients are like us, working mums who strive to find that elusive 'work life balance.' With the six-week Summer holiday just around the corner have you given much thought to how you will keep in touch with clients and prospects whilst you squeeze in some days out with the children and perhaps even a fortnight in the sun?

We think we've got the balance pretty spot on so thought we'd share with you how we do it!

In terms of current clients we are honest with them about how we work over the Summer - generally it is consolidated hours at our desks when the children are at sports camp or with Grandparents, catching up on emails of an evening and available by mobile phone for any emergencies.

With two of us running the business we also have the benefit of being able to cover for each other - if one of us it out of the country sipping a Cosmopolitan by the pool, the other takes on the responsibility for all clients.

This will be our third Summer of working this way and ..... well it works!

But what about keeping your own marketing afloat over the Summer months? If you've worked hard all year to build your blog, keep your website up to date and grow your social media presence you don't want to spoil that hard work with a 6-week silence!

Tools such as Tweet Deck and Hootsuite allow you to keep your online marketing ticking over, even if you don't have as much time as usual to dedicate to it. A bit of forward planning now and  you can have your Facebook and Twitter posts scheduled, your blogs written and ready to go live on your website and no-one will feel neglected.

As well as keeping our own presence up to date in this way we manage a number of our own clients's social media feeds, providing content and strategy......check out our case studies page to find out more about how we can help clients!

So relax, get scheduling and enjoy some well deserved time off this Summer!

Happy holidays!!

Hands up who REALLY evaluates their campaigns?

Hmmm I can see some half-hearted hands being raised at the back there! Are you the ones who have "evaluation" on your to do list but never seem to quite get around to doing it? Don't worry we're not here to tell you off - just to give you a gentle nudge in the right direction.

When you are busy putting a campaign together, working on strategies and developing content and nose to the grindstone getting information out there, it is all to easy to forget to evaluate just how well (or not) your campaign is being received.

For a PR campaign, tracking press coverage is the obvious evaluation tool. There are many ways to track coverage, the most fool proof is to pay a cuttings agency to do the reading for you. A daily report of coverage in the press (trade and consumer) lands in your inbox. Easy! These services will also cover broadcast media if you need them to. Then there are Google alerts which, if you use the right keywords, will pick up any coverage online. Of course effective PR isn't just about the number of mentions or the column inches - it is about the messages, the response from the public and what you do with it. Do you circulate your press coverage to your team? I bet you'll see lots of smiles and "oh wow we're in the newspaper" if you do! Great for morale.

If it's a new website (or an old one for that matter) there is the genius Google Analytics. Find out who is visiting your site and when. Where are they coming from? Searches, Facebook, Twitter....which pages they stay on and which makes them switch off in a nano-second. Used wisely this FREE tool can give you a real insight into how your website is performing and how it can be improved.

For social media campaigns you can track your "likes" and "followers" and see how the numbers grow. Check locations here - if you are a UK based company but all of your followers are from overseas you may want to re-think your strategy for building your network. How much interaction are you getting? It's all very well having a great big bunch of followers but if they're not commenting on your posts, retweeting you or interacting in anyway they're not hugely valuable to your business.

So why not make it your mid-year resolution to take the time to evaluate the marketing work you are doing. We promise it will be a real eye opener and you might even be able to pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Nothing quite like a good old chin-wag!

For those of you who have met Lisa and I personally you'll know we LOVE to talk! (As it's Claire writing this I can say Lisa REALLY LOVES to talk!!) We think that meeting or talking on the phone with our clients and contacts and chatting through their objectives, needs and marketing dreams is so much more productive than relying on email.

Of course email has its place and most of us would be lost without it but I have once again today been blown away by the power of picking up the phone!

I am "selling" a story into the regional press for a client - it's a great story, a huge amount of money raised for charity, some great pictures but it's never easy getting coverage in the press.

The lazy way to send out a release is to just email it to the generic newsdesk@ email address of the publication, wait and see if there's any coverage.

But here at One to Three we don't do lazy.

We pick up the phone, we chat to the journalist, we remind them they ran a piece on the build up to the event last year, we are charming, helpful and we send well written press releases and clear well captioned images.

The result is not only coverage for our clients but relationships being built with journalists.

So why not try peeking out from behind your email for a change and you might just see a whole new world!!!!

Bite size chunks.....

.....is how we recommend our clients approach their marketing. We work with a huge variety of industries, from funeral directors to vets, stylists to HR consultants and the size of companies is just as varied too. Our biggest client is a global pharmaceutical company our smallest are sole traders working from their home office. The industry or size of a company makes little difference to our initial advice however - bite size chunks is the way to go.

Marketing is one big puzzle made up of many small pieces - websites and SEO, social media, PR, brochures, events, your brand........no business could (or should) tackle all of these at once.

For starters a strategy should be set out that includes clear objectives, messages and targets. Who in your team will be responsible for delivering results and do you have a budget in place to outsource some of the more specialist areas?

One of our most popular services is social media marketing - our two hour workshop provides all of the basics of what to say, how to say it, how to build a social media strategy. This is a classic example of one of our "bite size chunks". Our clients go away understanding more than they did when they first sat down with us but we are careful never to overwhelm.  You can find out more in our Social media case study

Our PR offering is the same - one of our bigger clients has two very separate audiences to connect with. Professional and consumer. We set out clear objectives for both, decide on a quarterly basis where the focus needs to be and map out a strategy that fits both in terms of being on message but also within budget and capabilities of the team.

So, think "canapes" rather than "all you can eat buffet" and you might even have room for dessert!