Brookfield - The Internet Marketing Agency Blog

Digital Video – ‘Seize the Day’

Digital Video has taken the Internet by storm with more and more users connecting through Broadband the limitations on its use have been quickly forgotten. Examples of the ‘video success story’ are evident in video sharing websites such as Youtube, Blinkx and Blip TV. But the real question for online business users is can it prove to be a successful tool that attracts and converts visitors to the website? The answer is a resounding yes!

Think of the many applications whether you’re a hotel, estate agent, training company the list is endless. The following video, produced by Digital Visitor, is for a restaurant based in Bristol, Carpe Diem which leads me on to the next point.

Seize the Day

From an online marketing perspective the Interweb will soon become choked with video content so my opinion is if you want use this medium to its full effect, contract a good video production agency and gain the higher ground on your competition.

One more point have a look at this useful article on optimising video content.

Internet Advertising Bureau

Another organisation with plenty of good articles and resources on internet marketing topics is the Internet Advertising Bureau. The IAB is a trade association for the internet marketing industry and in my humble opinion we can’t have enough of those.

One of the key elements on the IAB website is the case study section. You can select the industry you operate in and gain some useful knowledge on how other companies have tackled and implemented their internet marketing plans. As a wise man once said, “you can learn from your own mistakes, but it is easier to learn from the mistakes of others!”

Central Presentations Select Brookfield As Their Internet Marketing Partner

Central Presentations, one of the leading audio visual equipment suppliers within the UK, has signed Brookfield – The Internet Marketing Agency, as their internet marketing partner.

The company based in the south west and midlands provide Audio Visual solutions to the Corporate, Live Events and Production Industries.

The Right Approach To Internet Planning

Regardless of the company’s product or even service, all internet strategies follow the similar principles of attracting the right people to the right place where they can receive the right message to make the right decision: 

Successful strategies will blend all four of these factors at the Internet Planning stage. The interdependence of each of these elements is also critical, as is the ability to modify and rework each element in the face of market and competitive forces.

Right People – One of the most critical elements of all on-line development is the ‘user perspective’. All too often Web sites are developed with a heavy bias toward how a company thinks they should be seen. As oppose to positioning themselves as the user and asking the question what would I expect to see from this perspective. Further attention should surround the ability to segment and identify the target market. In practical terms a company will need to break down the industry by type, user geography and the levels of knowledge the users may or may not posses.       

Right Place – The Web site must focus on developing and enhancing the following three elements; design, navigation and layout. All three must be consistent, intuitive and concord with the image the company wishes to convey. In real terms the Web site must be able to answer the simple question, who are you and what do you do? The user should also feel that the Web site matches the expectations generated at the search engine stage. 

Right Message – Content relates to headlines, company information, product/service descriptions and news stories. Content can even relate to the Meta tags and page titles of the Web site. Above all content should be relevant, timely, contextual, fresh and inspire trust or a sense of community in addition to being search engine friendly.       

Right Decision – This factor ties back to the Web site objective. What should the user to do when they visit the Web site? Often this aspect is referred to as a ‘call to action’. Think about what the objective of a Web site is and work through the steps that are required in order to fulfill that objective. Always, always apply the KISS principle. If a company would like prospective customers to telephone then it is a no brainer to put the telephone number where it is visible to all (sounds obvious, but you’ll be surprised!)

Offline Advertising Still Matters

The following Article on ClickZ relating to offline advertising demonstrates the need for some joined up thinking when it comes to your online and offline marketing strategy. It might sound obvious but as is the case I often find that companies we deal with will tend to treat these two areas as separate entities. This is further compounded by the fact that there is still little choice within the marketplace for a offline marketing agency that can competently plan and implement an online strategy (and vice versa). At the very least if your company employs both an offline and online marketing agency make sure the two of them are talking.

Anyway getting back to the article one amazing statistic from the research conducted found that two thirds of online searchers were influenced by offline advertising.

Original Book Works sign Brookfield

Original Book Works Ltd a manufacturer of False (Faux) Books have signed Brookfield as their Internet Marketing Partner. The company, based in Cirencester in the heart of Cotswolds have a long tradition of producing high quality storage and decorative products. For more information on Original Books visit www.originalbooks.net

Amongst the standard internet marketing services one of the forthcoming challenges for Brookfield is the optimisation of an Actinic based shopping site.

Online Advertising - Addendum

As a follow up to the post below see also this report that highlights three reasons why online marketing is growing at the speed it is. Broadband, Online Video and Social networking all form key drivers for this growth, ignore at your peril!