Are you mobile-ready for Google?

16Jun

Is your business mobile ready for Google?

Are you mobile-ready for Google?

With Google’s latest algorithm, which focuses on how mobile-ready your website should be, all businesses will need to get their act together, or may even disappear from the face of the earth!

OK, so it’s not actually, quite that bad – until your business may suddenly stop appearing in Google’s search results of course.

The subject of being Mobile-Ready, then becomes a matter that maybe needs to be given your very urgent attention.

Seriously though, we should all have mobile-friendly or mobile-ready websites by now – It is 2015, after all.

In fact, I would suggest that any business looking to compete and stand apart from their competition, should be looking even further ahead. We must all try and find new ways to stay ahead of the game.

Many businesses that I talk to will, as usual, be trying to play ‘catch-up’ upon hearing this news about mobile. But surely, they should want to get ahead of their competition – not just draw level.

You don’t want to be ‘as good’ as your competitors but strive to be ‘better than them’.

How do we adapt to ‘mobile’?

There are technical things that some SEO and Web guys will not be as good at as others. We therefore have to find the better ones out there

Getting the technical stuff right is really a matter of you first assessing and choosing the people that you use to look after your ‘webstuff’.

I would want to ensure that they will be dealing with your website ‘individually’, and not treating it like every other website they work on. Things like responsive design may not be right for everyone and all your web content may not easily be transferred from the large screen to the small mobile screen.

Therefore, going for the cheapest website design or SEO is not, in my humble opinion, the way to success!

Heading up my team at M3 Media Developments is Paul, who lectures in SEO – I know he is good and I do what HE tells me to do when it comes to SEO, because I consider he is the expert in his particular field.

I allow him free reign to develop all our websites and he can then focus his attention and his creative talent on building my business via improved lead acquisition and conversion rates.

That also means we both stay happy!

What can we do to get ahead in the mobile era?

The next stage of development will be ‘Mobile Apps’.

The one thing that Google will like even more than a mobile-friendly website, will be a mobile app.

My prediction is that “One day, all websites will be mobile Apps”

Some 10 years ago, I predicted that all websites would be based on blog platforms – and that is more or less the case now.

Why will Apps rule the world?

They will not ‘ALL’ rule the world of course, but the websites that deliver ‘valuable and relevant information’ direct to their recipient in super fast time, will be top dog when it comes to Google.

We will all have to stand out as individuals within our business sectors and have the requisite ‘background and experience’ that supports our claim to be an ‘expert’. This is ideally the information which needs to be in front of your prospects before your product or services.

At M3 Media Publishing we are presently creating a lightning-fast ‘mobile profile App’ which will enable you to create TRUST with your prospects before you meet them. Giving you the perfect edge over your competition.

David Lomas

Learn how we can position you as a trusted expert: Please call me on 08450 519374

24Mar

By David LomasIn Content Marketing

Business event finds ‘trust’ vital to prospects

The recent M3 Connections business event hosted by RBS Group Corporate Banking in Spinningfields Manchester was a great success.

With a few dozen selected business leaders participating in a business growth-related workshop, the room buzzed with a really positive chatter.

Speaker Garry Samuels conducted the workshop at this invitation-only business event, on behalf of David Lomas, who heads up the team at M3 Media Publishing and did a superb job.

The overriding value gained from the room was how important it is to create trust when prospecting.

Many of the guests wanted to understand how to do this in advance of a meeting with a prospective customer.

As specialists in the field of customer acquisition, M3 Media Publishing do have considerable experience on the subject.

David Lomas commented: “With so many people wanting the answer to this question, I have decided to cover the issue in our next workshops at our next two events.

If you are director or business leader based in Manchester or the North West and would like to attend a future event, please call M3 Media Publishing on 08450 519374.

Alternatively, fill in your details below and one of the M3 team will get in touch with you.

13Mar

By David LomasIn Marketing Strategy

RBS Host M3 Business Event

RBS Corporate Banking in Manchester have hosted the first business event in a series of Connections Events with Customer Acquisition specialists, M3 Media Publishing.

Held on Wednesday evening, this invitation-only event was attended by local business leaders and business directors.

Garry Samuels, Head of Business Strategy at M3 Media Publishing, was the speaker for the night and explained a few facts about their Prospect Engagement Programme.

He illustrated some powerful facts on how real engagement can be made with a target audience and how trust is critical to gaining new business.

“We are pleased to be working with Royal Bank of Scotland”, said Garry. “Our workshops address the positives of dealing with business growth and RBS have an untold wealth of experience to make things happen. It is great to give business leaders the opportunity to get introduced to and to collaborate with other good-quality business owners.”

, RBS Relationship Director, continued “The M3 Connections event was a great way of adding value to customers and prospects that we work with, in and around Manchester. There was a great atmosphere on the night which meant that everybody was able to easily interact with one another and gain new business connections that could help them grow their business”.

Rob concluded: “My thanks go to the team at M3 Media Publishing for the superb, thought provoking presentation they delivered on the night.”

If you are director or business leader based in Manchester or the North West and would like to make quality connections at a future event, please call M3 Media Publishing on 08450 519374.

Alternatively, fill in your details below and one of the M3 team will get in touch with you.

29Jan

Concept of content marketing and Google algorithm

By David LomasIn Content Marketing

Why is our content different?

Many people might ask the question: “As we already have content on our website and on our blog, why is your content going to make a difference?”

It depends whether or not the content you have already written on your website is attracting or, more importantly ‘engaging’ with your web visitors. In many cases where I assess websites, I find the content to be rather dull and uninspiring. Your content should have an impact on the reader and grab their attention with both your words and, of course your imagery.

To create ‘effective’ content, you first need to know ‘who your visitors are’ and ‘where they have come from’. You need to understand what frame of mind they are in when they reach your content.

By this I mean, are they a first time visitor or have they come to you after already having read an article that covers a particular issue?

In other words: Are they just researching or are they now ready to buy from you?

We can’t always know these answers, but if we construct a ‘route’ for our prospective customers to follow, then we have can better retain the focus of these prospects.

The way we write content is important but the overall solution for a successful content marketing strategy involves the creation of landing pages around your website, which focus on different customer types, or personas, and how to attract them to your door.

Allow me to explain…

Landing pages: How can they help to attract customers?

First you need to ‘connect’ with a possible target customer with a piece of information, a headline or an article, that is of interest to him.

It is critical that this content is published in a place relevant to your ‘chosen’ sector.

Your article needs to show an element of ‘understanding’ by the writer and ideally it should contain some research, that the writer has done – in order for it to be perceived as credible.

The main focus of your article should be on the issue that is relevant to the customer and it should stay focused purely on this one issue.

I see too many businesses trying to get multiple messages into one article, thereby overloading the reader with too much information, and thus losing his attention.

Within the article, there needs to be some mention of you or your business as someone who understands the particular issue. There should also be a brief illustration of how you have successfully helped other businesses, in a similar position, in the past.

There should also be a link for the reader to gain quick information about you, your expertise and your credibility. (Read my article on ‘The Speed of Influence’ and how it will shape business on the internet in the future)

This is what I mean by ‘effective’ content and it should now have gained the attention of your reader.

Create a ‘downloadable’ document

The next stage is to offer this reader a more in-depth report or ‘whitepaper’ style document about the same issue.

This is very powerful if it is relevant to his particular sector.

This content should be sitting on your website on a landing page that is solely focused on this same sector, so when the customer reaches the page, YOUR expertise in HIS sector is reaffirmed.

This keeps him in the state of mind that ‘you are the person to go to’ as you understand his sector.

Finally, If the headline on your document is sufficiently tempting to him, then he is very likely to give you his contact details in return for a download of your information.

For help with getting cleverly-written content in front of your chosen target audience, please contact me via: david @m3publishing.co.uk

David Lomas

27Jan

By David LomasIn Content Marketing

Writing Your Content – Who will see it?

At M3 Media Publishing, we take care in writing content for our clients that will actually resonate with their customers, readers and web visitors.

Our journalists work closely with our clients to understand what issues and challenges they face, in order to attract their attention and engage with them.

However, after getting the content right, if nobody gets to see your articles, all this work may have been done for nothing.

So who can we get to see your content?

Well, YOU can choose who sees your content, up to a point.

Where to publish your content is sometimes down to you.

Most businesses have blogs on their websites and this is the obvious first choice for publishing your own articles.

However, if we can get your content published in other places, then we open up many wider opportunities for others to see what we have said about you.

Linkedin can help you publish content.

LinkedIn gives us all a very valuable social platform to have our articles published – via Linkedin Pulse and via your own and other groups.

Having said that, getting group managers to publish your content is not always easy. We do spend time working with group managers trying to understand what content they want to publish.

The well-managed groups will usually only publish your content if it is industry specific and informative and I applaud them for that.

This is the sort of content that we should all want to write and, more importantly, it is the sort of content that others want to share out!

If you can find the right audience and create valuable content, others will help you share it with all their Linkedin connections.

Social Media is the key to reaching a bigger audience

Once we have created some engaging content about you and your business, we set up a programme of distribution using twitter.

With our established reputation within three main business sectors, HR & Recruitment, Property & Construction and the Business Expertise sectors, we already have a network of content distributors in each sector.

Check out our 3 magazines within our portfolio HR Aspects – Property Aspects – Business Aspects

This gives us a massive advantage when working with our clients in each of these sectors, as we can use this extensive support network to help them reach a specifically targeted audience.

This is crucial to successful content marketing.

So distributing content can be quite daunting, but I hope this has helped.

For help with getting your message in front of your chosen target audience, please contact me via: david @m3publishing.co.uk

27Jan

article marketing can help drive visits to your website

By David LomasIn Content Marketing

How can articles generate business for you?

Articles on their own, may not be enough to generate business for you.

The articles need to sit as part of the route that your prospective customer can choose to follow, that will eventually lead to your front door.

I refer to this route as the ‘customer corridor’ and your articles will work better when they form part of this route.

Very simply, you need to create a number of simple steps for your prospects to take to reach you.
If at each point, your prospect is given some idea that you can still be helpful to him, then the next step is for you to offer them another piece of valuable information.

Thus drawing the customer closer to you.

Think of this as if you were laying a trail of breadcrumbs for them to follow.

The final document should contain a little more ‘in-depth’ information for the reader, which follows the theme of your initial article. Thus retaining the focus of your prospective customer on whatever caught his attention in the first place.

This ‘teaser’ document, as I sometimes call it, should contain information that your reader really wants to see and it should ideally be placed within your website – and hidden from view.

This, critically, will then allow you to offer this information to your reader, in exchange for his email address.

Thereby completing the customers’ ‘route’ to your door and more importantly, providing you with a method of measuring and converting your reader into a partly-qualified prospect.

For help with writing articles that generate business, please contact me via: david @m3publishing.co.uk

David Lomas

4Nov

Baker Tilly host M3 Connections event for business owners and directors

By David LomasIn Marketing Strategy

Baker Tilly hosts successful M3 Connections Event

M3 Media Publishing recently held another of their very popular M3 Connections events at the recently-opened offices of their strategic partners, Baker Tilly in Preston.

Guests were entertained by both David Lomas of M3 Media Group and well known speaker, Andrew Thorp* from Mojo Your Business who conducted a workshop around the question: ‘How do we find the pain in our prospects business – in order to be able to understand how to position our own offering?’

This question was put to the directors and business owners in the usual discussion-style presentation which David and Andrew like to use, in order to stimulate thoughts from the room and to encourage good audience participation.

The guests then start and quickly develop their individual discussions within small groups, made up of their fellow guests sitting at each table.

During these discussions, guests are able to learn much more about their fellow business leaders and the different issues that they face and as a result, make valuable connections.

This relaxed yet informative environment is condusive to forming great relationships with other businesses and plenty of valuable introductions were made on the night.

If you are a director or business owner and wish to be invited to one of these events, please let us know.

David Lomas
M3 Media Publishing

A word about our speaker…

*A graduate of Manchester University, Andrew Thorp is a professional speaker and a communication skills trainer.

He is a co-founder of MojoLife and plays a key role in its leadership.

Andrew spent many years in the golf & leisure industry as a referee, tournament organiser, marketing manager and journalist.

Find out more about Andrew at Mojo Your Business

11Jul

By David LomasIn Content Marketing

Content-sharing – How can you benefit from it?

Sending or sharing good quality content with your audience makes perfect sense to me. We all need to give out a valuable message first, in order to subsequently attract and then engage with our target audience.

This is true in other ways of communication, when, for example, we may be giving a speech. If we start by talking about something that is relevant and ‘of real value’ to our audience, then maybe, we let them know we could have some answers to their challenges. Your audience are then immediately engaged with what you are saying and will hopefully pay attention to you.

The information does not need to be about our own products or services and in fact it only works if you talk about something OTHER than yourself. This is exactly the same with your social media activity.

Google likes valuable, well-written content

It is important that what we push out to our contacts via social media has value to THEM and is not just a sales message about our products and services. I am sure most of you will agree that we see too much of that already.

In this digital and social media world, sharing valuable information with others is the critical first stage of engagement. If this content is relevant to your audience, it will help you to initially connect with them and at some stage they will hopefully want to hear more from you.

One clever way of starting this engagement process is to have a ready supply of good quality content, ready-prepared. You can then use this content as part of your strategy to attract your target audience.

How to raise your social influence by ‘sharing content’.

M3 Content Marketing Programme enables you to boost your social media profile by providing you with well-written and engaging articles that you can share and tweet through your social media forums and groups. The articles they share with you are all professionally written by their team of journalists and will each be relevant to a particular sector.

These articles are published across a portfolio of professionally-managed blogs and higher Page-ranked websites, and can then be shared by you through your social media forums – thus boosting your activity and raising your profile and influence.

M3 Media Publishing can show you ways of including articles about you in this content in order to not only raise your profile, position you as an expert but actually generate leads and connections for your business.

The main sectors in which M3 presently provide content are:

Property & Construction
HR & Recruitment
Business Expertise
Marketing & Communications
Retirement Sector
Exporting

If you want to join our content distribution programme email us at:- info@ m3publishing.co.uk detailing the sectors in which you prefer to receive content.

17Feb

By David LomasIn Marketing Strategy

Connections event at Pareto proves successful

Tuesday 14th January welcomed over 40 guests to the latest M3 Connections Event, held in partnership with Pareto at their Head Office in Wilmslow.

These regular events are designed to bring together business leaders from across the North West to promote the exchange of business contacts and referrals.

Guest speaker was Andrew Thorp, who is the co-founder of Manchester-based Mojo Your Business. Andrew held an interactive workshop, delivering insights on ‘Creating a Connected Business’.

Showing how we can all use story-telling as a tool for building rapport and for engaging employees, Andrew explored the power and impact of combining the macro, or bigger picture, with the micro, or more specific details of each story.

The highly engaging presentation saw attendees then work in individual groups to come up with their own suggestions for stories, before a number of them shared theirs with the room as a whole.

Introduced and concluded by David Lomas of M3 Media Publishing, the presentation also welcomed questions from delegates, promoting interaction and continuing discussion throughout.

The evening concluded with drinks and informal networking amongst attendees, hosted in Pareto’s lounge reception.

Pareto Marketing Director Paul Drew commented. “These events are a unique and valuable tool for local businesses to build a base of contacts in their region, with representatives attending from a range of industry backgrounds and organisations”.

David Lomas added “We were extremely pleased with the whole event and the reaction from so many of the attendees, who commented on how many valuable connections they made on the night. We look forward to our next event here at Pareto on March 11th”

12Dec

By David LomasIn Marketing Strategy

M3 event partnership proves good for Pareto

The 12th of November recently saw Pareto Law partner media publishing experts M3 Publishing to deliver their bespoke ‘Connections’ event, held at the Pareto head office in Wilmslow.

A presentation from Senior Sales Training Consultant Steve Lowndes, from Pareto, focused upon the importance of sales training and development in business.

Steve outlined the Pareto offering as the Uk’s foremost and leading Graduate sales recruitment and training operation.

Two other presenters contributed to what was a vibrant evening, with some fascinating discussions taking place afterwards over the refreshments.

This joint venture drew business leaders from 23 different organisations across the Greater Manchester area for an evening of presentations, discussion and networking with great success.

Would you like an invite to one of our Connections events for directors and business owners?

If you are a business owner or director and you would like to meet like-minded entrepreneurs at one of our other invitation-only events in either Manchester, Preston or Liverpool, held in conjunction with Baker Tilly, please contact david@m3publishing.co.uk

To see a more extensive report and photographs from the Pareto Connections event on their own website, please CLICK HERE

Author : David Lomas

How do we adapt to ‘mobile’?

What can we do to get ahead in the mobile era?

Why will Apps rule the world?

Google likes valuable, well-written content

How to raise your social influence by ‘sharing content’.

Would you like an invite to one of our Connections events for directors and business owners?