Starting your own business – there is an easier way!

You have a great idea for a business and you feel ready to take the plunge but there are many things that are stopping you. There are all kinds of barriers to getting your business off the ground. For many budding entrepreneurs, and for many, it can seem a complex and confusing time.

Tasks that seem simple at first, soon become more complicated - you have to get a logo and image designed, build a website, get on social media, develop your brand, design and print business cards and leaflets, put yourself ‘out there’, go door to door, be on the phone… the list is never ending. In amongst all this, you may start to win work or sell products and these initial sales start to take up all of your time.

Just like any other career, when you start you own business, it can be all too easy to become side-tracked and lose focus of where you want to go, or worse fail to take the plunge at all and let your idea and entrepreneurial spirit die away.

But what if there was help, advice and support rolled up in one great package? The early weeks and months of your business start up could fly by – and you could have an incredibly successful business on your hands before you know it. We’ll let you into a secret – it IS possible to start a thriving business without fear of taking on too much, and here’s how:

So much to do, so little time

Launching your new business can mean many tasks need to be completed beforehand and the time taken doing so needs to be the shortest time possible between floating your idea and selling your first product or service to a customer. Bringing in the first bit of money is important but making sure you get the basics rights in the first instance means not having to re-do them a few months down the line.

Website design

Any new business is encouraged to get online as soon as possible, but this can mean that you may design your own or opt for a ‘too-good-to-be-true’ website design price. Designing your own may seem like a great idea – it saves you money, right? – but it may mean that some of the more technically advanced stuff, like search engine optimisation (SEO), keywords and so on, fall by the wayside. Essentially, it has to be visible.

Your website also needs to look and feel right as it is essentially the first step in creating your brand. Brand awareness of is how people perceive your business and product, as well as what they feel about the whole process of interacting with your business and buying from you. Get it right and your business will fly! Get it wrong and it may stutter and falter.

Oh yes, and your website needs to be mobile-friendly too…

Social media management

Yes, we know that you are connected to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on every minute of the day but there is a whole world of difference between using social media personally and creating a professional edge for your business.

The world of social media is a crowded place and with a business presence, you want it to reach out to people that you do not know but you know could be potential customers. Do you know how to do that?

Specialist help for setting up a new business

With a new business start-up support package from U2View Media, all this essential stuff is taken care of for you. We will design a logo and brand image for your business, give you a supply of business cards to start off with and then work on creating a winning website for you that impresses potential new customers. Your website includes a mobile-responsive version which is essential given that over 70% of Google searches are now performed on a mobile device.

Then we take care of your start-up marketing. We give you three months of our ‘Silver’ social media package which includes fully curated content across Facebook and Twitter as well as ‘boosted’ posts on Facebook to really help your new business get seen. In addition, we set up a Google ‘Adwords’ campaign for three months to drive traffic to your shiny new website and actively help you win new customers.

Our start up package literally takes care of all your initial start-up branding and launch marketing allowing you time to concentrate on running your business and getting it off to the best possible start. The cost for our entire New Business Start-Up Package is just £999 fully inclusive of everything. 

For more information please or to discuss your new business with us, please call Paul or Martin on (01273) 915992 or e-mail us at info@u2viewmedia.com We look forward to becoming a part of your success story.

To be seen or not be seen? - That is the question

As a business you may have some great Social Media profiles and an abundance of marketing skills, but where are you directing these people to? It is so easy to build a website these days BUT it is not easy to build a great website.

In today’s digital age your website is your modern-shop window, it is the channel through which the majority of your customers will contact you and view your products and services. Even existing customers who are loyal and long-standing customers, will look at your website occasionally. However if it looks bad or is hard to find you will be wasting money and a lot of time.

Imagine if you wish you were the owner/builder of a 5 star luxurious hotel, your entire business relies upon a simple factor: the number of people who come and stay in your hotel and the recommendations you get off the back of these.

Would you then build this fantastic five star hotel in the middle of a street full of closed down shops where no one was visiting?

The answer I would imagine, is no!

Equally if your hotel was on the other end of the scale a 1 star budget hoteI I doubt you’d shout to the rooftops about it and position it in the heart of Mayfair or Park Lane.

We are using metaphors about SEO and web marketing of course.

If you’ve paid money for a web developer to make you a really funky looking, engaging, functional website you’d want that to be seen! You’d want it to have the options and the ability to share content, optimise specific landing pages, create your own content – because after all, who knows your business better than you?

All of these things are important when considering your website development.

The free website builder sites such as (Wix, Moonfruit) are to websites what fast food restaurants are to fine catering! They might look ok from the outside but you’re just not getting the same thing inside. Remember quality is so much better than quantity or a freebie.

Put simply your website needs to be searchable, discover-able, usable and editable.

I mentioned at the start that your website is your shop window and imagine it on a virtual high street with a million other websites on it. About a tenth of these have the look and traffic which is your big national advertisers like BMW & Coca Cola who have unlimited budgets. But the rest? Well these will vary between looking very outdated and tired, to looking better than they actually are. Those are the sites you are competing with. You need to stand out from the crowd and it isn’t just about making your website look great (It helps), but you to make sure people know it exists in the first place!

That is the challenge, and that is where social media, SEO and online marketing come into their own…

Paul

Paul Waller

Digital Media Director, U2View Media Limited

www.u2viewmedia.co.uk

Taking the next step from 'do it yourself' digital and internet marketing

Every startup book and article will tell you to do your own social media, write blogs, use a free email service and make your own website when you're setting up your new business.

And yes this is all possible, and yes it is a great way to start off - especially when money is tight, and yes you'll end up with a Facebook page, twitter account and templated website you've created at midnight somewhen. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at the start – whatever means necessary and all that – it has to be done.

But the time will come when your company has grown and you'll need to be seen as more professional in the digital world, chances are those websites and social media pages have barely been touched by you in the months and years that followed your business launch.

But improving on your original setup, developing your digital marketing strategy and website offering further is hard to find the time to do when you're just trying to keep your head above water or your cashflow balanced - it can feel like there's a million things to do and more often than not, updating social media channels and improving your website get bumped further and further down the long list of tasks that are forever coming up.

But it's something that must be done in today's business world – well, done if you want to reach 1000's of potential new customers and keep your current ones coming back for more!

Having a great digital offering is now a must and the stat's just keep adding up, with numbers such as up to 81% of people reading and trusting reviews before booking a restaurant for example, or within the next couple of year's nearly 80% of internet traffic will be via a smartphone, things have moved on at such a pace from traditional media such as newspaper advertising in the past decade that it's hard for anyone to keep up – let alone a start-up business.

Stepping up

This is where companies such as ourselves come in, we can take the hassle, worry and time constraints away from it all – creating and up keeping everything online that regards your business - whether that's keeping a professional presence on the web via a properly designed website and properly serviced social media channels, or having a business app with your logo that sits on your customers phones each and every day. All will improve your company's professional image and boost interaction with customers new and old alike.

To help businesses step up to the digital world we start by offering the basics of that step – possibly running, on your behalf, your Facebook and Twitter pages, creating a professional website and having accompanying email addresses.

But to us at U2View this really is just the basics – the next step means improving your current digital offering all over and increasing it too, adding further social media profiles such as Google+ and LinkedIn, creating company videos, possibly moving your website to full e-commerce and creating a mobile App to showcase your business.

But here's what most business owners don't realise - it really doesn't have to cost the earth - full packages actually work out far less per week money wise than running an ad in traditional media such as your local newspaper - and you'll reach a much larger audience in the process.

So if you need a bit of help or guidance and fancy a chat about how we can help your businesses with it's digital exposure and marketing strategy - and ultimately gain new customers - you know where we are!

Paul.

Paul Bearman

Creative Director, U2View Media Ltd.

www.u2viewmedia.co.uk

Social media - a beginner's guide to building your brand

If you know nothing about Social Media this article makes interesting reading.

http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/sep/03/social-media-building-brand-beginners-guide?CMP=new_1194

A guide on how to get more response and sales leads using the AIDCA copywriting formula

We meet so many businesses who do not understand the best ways to market themselves as a business and the importance of ensuring any marketing literature really stands out.

So here is a marketing tip, which you can be used online and in published materials.
The AIDCA copywriting formula is an effective and proven way of generating
more response.

The majority of newspaper groups use this process when designing adverts to appear
in their publications.

AIDCA represents the process of the journey that the buyer goes through from
being aware of a marketing proposition, until they make a buying decision.

So what does AIDCA stand for?

1. Headline or opening line: Attention

2. Product description: Interest

3. The offer / proposition: Desire

4. Guarantee / reassurance: Conviction

5. Call to action: Action

Did you know that in advertising, nearly six times as many people read the headline
as the body copy of an advertisement? An effective headline should be the
WOW message that will resonate into the readers mind. It will entice them to read
the rest of your copy.

If your headline does not grab the readers attention it will not matter how engaging or
interesting the rest of your copy is.

If you require any advice or help in marketing your business
please visit: www.u2viewmedia.co.uk