If you’ve got a Blog, a News letter is also a great way to deliver your existing blog articles, after all, your social media fans have seen your articles, so why not everyone else?

We’re big fans of iContact and MailChimp, these are both leaders in their field, however they’re not the only packages of this type, there are a good many others.

How much do they cost?
Email marketing is a competitive industry and things change often as the services constantly try to one-up each other. As of this writing, pricing for iContact and MailChimp is not identical, but it’s close enough that it probably won’t play a factor in your decision in most cases.

However, if you have less than 2,000 subscribers and send less than 12,000 messages per month, MailChimp is free. You’ll pay $29/month ($24.95/month with an annual discount) for an equivalent plan from iContact. This might make the choice clear enough that you stop reading now and click right over to MailChimp, but there are other things you may want to consider.

MailChimp

MailChimp’s “less is more” approach results in a less intuitive user interface. In many cases, you are shown only what MailChimp thinks you need to see to complete the current action (e.g., creating a campaign). That said, once you’ve figured it out, it’s very logical, just not what you’d expect at first.

We often build templates for MailChimp, and as far as we’re concerned one of its biggest strengths is that we can define editable areas, so with the right layout, it’s very easy for our customers to be productive, very quickly. Why is this such a big deal?
Well, many of its competitors have a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor that gives you full control of the content and layout of the email. But this comes at a price, and often results in broken layouts and hours of frustration spent lining boxes up. MailChimp’s approach with pre-defined editable areas, avoids this problem well.

MailChimp has many alliances with other software packages such as SalesForce, so if you’re looking to add email marketing on to a well recognised package, then MailChimp is the most likely to fit the bill.
Getting email addresses in to the software is easy, however watch out for MailChimp’s policy on generic email addresses such as info@, enquiries@, sales@ etc. If you’re importing email addresses from an existing source, these will be ignored.

MailChimp offers spam checking for paid accounts as well as an Inbox Inspector, allowing you to see your campaign in 30+ email clients as well as check for spammy content before you send, on a pay-as-you-go basis.

iContact

We generally find iContact much easier and more logical to use. It’s simple, intuitive and tidy, but watch out for the editing area. You have full control over the content and layout of the email, which can in some cases end up in disaster and needing some knowledge of HTML. Sometimes, if you’re not confident with all things IT, you may prefer the less is more approach of MailChimp.

iContact lets you edit inline, right in the message, so you can see what it looks like as you do it. With MailChimp, editing opens just that section in a new window so you lose the context of the whole message.
By displaying more on the screen, iContact allows you to get to pretty much whatever you need whenever you want to. Though the navigation is more complex than MailChimp’s, it’s also significantly more intuitive.
Importing email addresses is very simple, as is sending, previewing, spam checking and testing emails.

What they do the same
In both applications, messages can be sent immediately or you can schedule them to be sent later and both offer the ability to post to Facebook and Twitter automatically.
Both have multiple contact lists and can handle different campaigns with different sending email addresses.

They also allow you to imbed a subscription form in to your website that subscribes interested readers straight in to your mailing list. Want to see one in action? Go to our website www.fl1group.com and sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page and see for yourself.

So, which one is better?
The two services have very different looks. Whereas MailChimp’s is a very minimalistic look and feel, iContact takes a more direct approach, displaying more information and options, but in an organized way.

Based on this high-level review, if you’re a low-volume sender and cost is your primary concern, MailChimp is the way to go. You’ll get used to the interface after sending a few campaigns.

If you have lots and lots of contacts and send them lots and lots of messages or if you want to jump right in and start using the tool right now with the least amount of frustration, iContact might be a better fit for you.
Both MailChimp and iContact have loads of other features that might make one or the other a better option for you. If you’re interested, there are a lot of side-by-side reviews of these and other email marketing services on the Internet as well. Be warned, though, the results vary a lot between reviews.

Since MailChimp has a free plan and iContact offers a 30-day free trial, why not try them both and decide for yourself?

Caroline joins us who will be taking care of our marketing and administration. She will also be dealing with all the seminar and workshop bookings.

Some other bits of exciting news, following on from the success of our workshops last year we have added lots of new dates for 2012 – check out our Workshops page for more details. Amongst our old favourites we have a couple of newbies including our workshop run by Paul Simister from Paul Simister Photography, that will provide you with simple and effective tips on taking pictures for your website.

We kickstart our run of workshops with our popular Search Engine Essentials workshop. This is running on Tuesday 14th February 10.30am to 12.30pm and is almost fully booked so if you are interested in learning the techniques to get your business to the top of Google ranking then hurry and book your place now.

For a list of all our free workshops please click here.

After much demand we have decided to write a NEW Social Media Seminar. This is in a different format to our workshops in that it is longer, and more detailed. It will give you a greater understanding of Social Media and explain the different technologies involved. The cost of this seminar is £50 plus VAT and includes refreshments and networking opportunities. Places are limited so please book early.

Here are a few pointers based on the software we’ve used and worked with over the last 12 years.

Being a guitarist, I liken choosing a CRM to being like buying a guitar.

You’d have heard of all different makes and models, and somewhere in the back of your mind you might dream that buying a Fender Stratocaster will suddenly make you play like Eric Clapton, but in all honesty there’s no substitute for walking in to the guitar shop and just trying out as many as you can. A Strat worked for Clapton, but that’s not to say it will be a good fit for you.

I know talking from personal experience I bought my dream bass guitar last year, paid a handsome sum of money much to the envy of my colleagues because it was the instrument my idol played for years. A marvellous instrument that it was, but it just wasn’t me. Much that it did the job superbly, it was the wrong sound and fit for what I do and no way as well suited as basses I’ve got that cost 10% of the money I paid. The moral of the story is; had I have sat and tried it out first, I’d have realised straight away it wasn’t going to work.

Likening that analogy to CRM systems, we bought Sage Act some years ago, based on my previous experience and its reputation.

It was an utter disaster, and didn’t work at all well for the infrastructure we had at the time. Had I have tried it, I would have realised, but in earnest I didn’t and we suffered as a business for it.

With CRM software they’re all much the same, they’ll all do what you want and plenty more besides.

They all have:

• Be Web based (this is the ideal arrangement for so many small businesses)
• Different pricing models, often per user/per month
• Company record database
• Contact details based on Contacts for a Company
• A way of grouping Contacts
• Status that you can assign to Contacts, so you can track your relationship
• Flexible Reporting
• Most have a task list and scheduling
• Most have Workflows
• Most have Document Storage and Management
• All have Contact Notes and History
• Some will integrate directly with your email service
• Many have an email marketing module built in
• Most will connect with external email marketing packages such as iContact and MailChimp
• Some with have a Web-to-Lead style feature that will connect to your website
• Some level of data import and export

These are the core features and the ones that I think are must-haves for most businesses.

My advice would be to try them all out and see what you’re most comfortable with.

• Salesforce for example is one of the market leaders, but many find it unwieldy and over-complicated to use.
• Zoho is another good system I’ve heard good things about.
• SugarCRM is open source (so free) it used to be buggy, but I believe has come a long way.
• Microsoft CRM is a true Microsoft Product fitting the 80/20 rule. It does 80% of what you want out of the box, but if you want that last 20% that’s really useful, it will take 80% of the time and cost. Most people I know who use Microsoft CRM hate it or love it but have had to spend the cost of a new car on it customising it.
• Sage CRM is Sage’s mid-tier cloud based offering. No experience of it, however I have worked on getting website data in to it via a Web-to-lead interface which has had to be developed especially via a third party specialist. I can’t imagine for a second it was a low cost exercise for what so many others do straight out of the box.

One thing is for sure; if you invest time and choose something you’re comfortable with, it will be a long and happy relationship and the software will undoubtedly grow your business.

Choose software you’re not comfortable with but you chose because it’s got a well known name, and you won’t use it and it will end up being a bottomless pit of time and money that will hinder your business.

If software isn’t simple and intuitive to you, it won’t be simple and intuitive to staff and out-workers you may have. If this is the case, it will end up being a chain around your neck, your staff will resist using it and you’ll end up acting as first line technical support which will take you away from what you really should be doing.

Finally, if you have a Smartphone, investigate synchronisation with your iPhone/iPad/Android/Blackberry. There may be an App for your CRM as there so often is when many other products.

Final questions are; data ownership. Who owns it and can you export it?
If this service is terminated for whatever reason, where do you stand?

Links in to your accounting system may also be a consideration at some stage.
Many provide links to Kashflow, QuickBooks or Sage. Don’t get too hung up on this though as more often than not who you’re billing isn’t always your primary contact that you’d have in your CRM. Bear in mind that most CRM packages are sales and marketing focused, whereas your accountancy software isn’t.

Need more help? Give us a call on 01727 739812.

I put it live, and braced myself and waited for the orders to come flooding in.
Guess what? They never did! Or not at first anyway.

I’ve seen a number of people build a website, put it live and search in Google within the hour only to be met with disappointment.

Getting in to Google
It sounds daft, but Google won’t know about your website unless you tell it.
It’s quite possible that Google will follow a link to your website from another website some time after you’ve launched it, but this could take some weeks.

The easiest sure fire way is to manually tell Google that your website exists.

How do you do this? Well, the easiest way is to search in Google with the term “submit my site to Google” and the rest is very simple.

The way we recommend you do it is to use Google Webmaster Tools. This is a free service and you can register yourself as the owner of your website. Not only this, but you can upload something called an XML Sitemap which explicitly tells Google where your website is and what pages you have. This tool is also an excellent resource for troubleshooting and finding out what Google thinks of your website.

The Sand Box
Once your website is in Google, it in effect gets entered in to a Quarantine area dubbed the “Sand Box“. From Google’s point of view, it wants to know if your website is credible, reliable and a sustainable source of content. What Google doesn’t want to see is a website that’s there one minute and gone the next. Google really doesn’t want to refer someone searching to a website that no longer exists. With this in mind, it takes some weeks for it to monitor, assess and start to rank your website.

How do I know if my website is in Google at all?
Google has a great command for this. Is you type in to Google “site:www.mywebsite.com” (without quotes, and where www.mywebsite.com is the name of your website), Google will show you all the active pages it has for your website in its index.

Are there any quicker ways?
A Google Maps/Google Local Business Listing is your first port of call. These are free, and potentially rank you above the other “natural” Google listings. We recommend everyone has one regardless of their geographic scope.

The best way to keep Google interested and speed your way up the rankings is to have regularly changing and well written content. Blogs are a great way to engage your reader, but more importantly engage Google.

How long does it take to get a full ranking?
For most websites that aren’t changing daily or filled with key-word rich content, expect this process to take around 12 months. Our advice often is to focus on building quality links to your website, and explore driving traffic from any source other than Google, and more often than not Google takes care of itself in the long run. Relying on Google natural rankings alone in your first year can often lead to disappointment.

Building a new website is often like setting up shop in the middle of the country. Relying on passing foot-fall alone won’t work unless you go out and tell people where you are and how they get to your shop. Google in many ways is no different.

Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are also excellent ways to create awareness and drive traffic to your website.

Want to know more?
Here are some other articles you might find useful and if that doesn’t interest you, what about one of our free workshops starting in early 2012?

Our FREE Workshops for 2012

Getting started with Google Local Business Listings
Link building Basics
An introduction to Blogging

Our Workshops have proven to be so popular we’ve added three more to the series and recruited some experts in their fields to talk about their areas of expertise. Why not take a look and book any you find of interest.

Being a musical bunch and always interested in raising money for charity, we’ve teamed up with the lovely girls at Rickmansworth’s estate agency Sewell and Gardner to play at their Chorleywood Stock event. Chorleywood Stock is a live music event in Chorleywood on Saturday October 8th set up to raise money for Oxfam. If you want to see Alex’s band Brocker and Jason’s band The Kings of Langley, why not come along and take a look.

See you next month.

Meanwhile back in St Albans, Jason put together a band of parents from his local school and played a one off gig at the school’s summer fair. Not quite as rock ‘n roll, but they did end up in the local paper.

On a technology front, we’ve started exploring some great new changes with Facebook applications that mean pages can be customised more than ever before. We’ve also been continuing on our quest to see just how far we can push WordPress. This package never ceases to impress us with how customisable it is.

Finally, July and August see the 6th series of Workshops, back by popular demand. There are now eight to choose from, and all are completely free, so why not take a look and book one or two.

See you next month.

Search Engine Essentials Workshop (Tuesday 19th July)
Social Media Essentials Workshop (Thursday 21st July)
SEO Copywriting Workshop (Tuesday 26th July)
Facebook Essentials Workshop (Thursday 28th July)
WordPress Essentials Workshop (Tuesday 2nd August)
Google Analytics Essentials Workshop (Thursday 4th August)
E-commerce Essentials Workshop (Tuesday 9th August)
Planning and Creating a website (Thursday 11th August)

All Workshops are free of charge, all you need is to book online, call us on 01727 739812 or email client@fl1group.com
For more details visit:
www.fl1group.com/workshops.asp

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13541250

The regulations regarding Cookies changed with effect from the 26th May 2011.

The regulations apply to storage or gaining access to information stored, in the device of a subscriber or user. This means the use of cookies and similar technologies for storing information. The Regulations also apply to similar technologies for storing information. This could include, for example, Locally Stored Objects (commonly referred to as “Flash Cookies”).

Until recently the regulations simply imposed an obligation on websites to;
• Tell users how websites were to use cookies and,
• Advise users how they could “opt-out if they objected.
The regulations were commonly complied with by the inclusion of relevant wording in a website’s Privacy Policy.

The main change relating to cookies is that websites may not place cookies on a visitor’s machine without first having received express consent. This is a move from an “opt out” culture to an “opt-in” one.

Websites are still required to provide clear and comprehensive information about the purposes, storage and access to that information.

There are some very limited exceptions to the express consent rule where, for example, a cookie is used to verify the purchase of goods e.g. when a user clicks “add to basket” or “proceed to checkout”.

Given that these regulations are very “fresh”, and given the government’s views on implementation there is no definitive answer as to how “consent” should be obtained. There is one argument that says a website can rely on the user’s browser settings At present, most browser settings are not sophisticated enough to allow you to assume that the user has given their consent to allow a website to set a cookie. Also, not everyone who visits a site will do so using a browser. They may, for example, have used an application on their mobile device.

One solution proposed is to use a “pop-up”. This might initially seem an easy option to achieve compliance – you are asking someone directly if they agree to you putting something on their computer and if they click yes, you have their consent – but it’s also one which might well spoil the experience of using a website if you use several cookies.

Probably the best and most “risk free” solution is to revise terms and conditions for a website. There are already lots of examples of gaining consent online using the terms of use or terms and conditions to which the user agrees when they first register or sign up.

However, it is important to note that changing the terms of use alone to include consent for cookies would not be good enough even if the user had previously consented to the overarching terms. To satisfy the new rules on cookies, websites have to make users aware of the changes and specifically that the changes refer to their use of cookies. It would then be necessary to gain a positive indication that users understand and agree to the changes, e.g. a ticked “understanding and consent” box.

There is no “catch all” solution so each website will need to consider its use of cookies, the type of cookies and the best way to comply with the regulations without minimizing the impact of their website

The relatively good news is the government’s view that there should be a phased approach to the implementation of these changes. In light of this the Information Commissioners Office have stated that were they to receive a complaint about a website, they would expect an organisation’s response to set out how they have considered the points above and that they have a realistic plan to achieve compliance. They have also stated that they would handle this sort of response very differently to one from an organisation which decides to avoid making any change to current practice.

The key point is that you cannot ignore these rules.

Please remember that the above comprises only a brief précis of the nature and impact of the latest regulations and is by no means a full and comprehensive summary.

Source: Brian Scott at Max Montague Limited
www.maxmontague.com

For more information on what hosting is and what the various options are, why not take a look at http://blog.fl1group.com/2009/07/01/a-beginers-guide-to-web-hosting/

From time to time, websites need to move from one host to another. This can be for various reasons such as upgrading for better performance, but more typically it’s to find a new host that best supports the website’s needs. The most common need to move host is due to a new website with a new web developer and with a need for a different type of hosting.

In most cases there are the steps involved:

1) Arrange the new hosting package with the new supplier
This is normally either done by you or your web developer.

2) Set up any email addresses needed with the new host
Hosting also provides your email system, therefore mail accounts need to be set up with the new host. More often than not new passwords will be used, and some settings vary from host to host meaning that local settings within your email software may need to be updated.

3) The Domain Name is pointed to the new host
Each host uses different name servers. A name server is a place on the internet where all traffic is directed to. Once it reaches the nameserver, it is then forwarded to the machine and service that actually handles your hosting.

4) The New Hosting takes over
Once your domain name is pointing to the new host, your old host is no longer being used. Make sure that (where applicable) your old host are informed, else you may continue to be charged for a service you’re no longer using.

It all sounds simple enough, however in reality, there is a delay while one host takes control from the other. This delay can be up to 48 hours, which means it can sometimes be tricky for a business to plan for the transfer process.

Here are a few questions we often get asked:

How long does it take for the transfer to take place?
Once the switch has been started, it normally starts to take place within a couple of hours. In some cases it can take up to 48 hours.

Will I lose any email?
In some cases yes, however if you have your email software set up with both the new and old connection settings, you’ll receive email from whoever the host is. We always recommend you plan the transfer during a quiet time and make plans to cover yourself just in case mail doesn’t arrive during this period.

Why does my new website show up on my friend’s computer but not mine?

Different ISPs use different routers, therefore using two different ISPs you can get two different sets of results during the host migration.

From one ISP you can be accessing your old web pages from your old host, whilst a different ISP can be accessing pages from the new website on a different host.

The process normally takes anything up to 48 hours to fully complete, however it will work itself through in time.

Why does it take so long? Is there any way to speed it up?
Sadly not, due to different Internet Service Providers updating their records at different times.

Will I need to change my email software settings?
This is highly likely. Most commonly your password may change, however user names, incoming mail servers and outgoing mail servers can change too.

How much should I expect to pay to have my website moved to a new host?
It normally takes a number of hours to prepare for and set up the transfer. In some cases your website host or developer will charge you for this, however with new websites this is often included free of charge.

My emails are looked after by someone else, how will this effect things?
This can be taken care of with some preparation. The new host will need special records called DNS entries changed. This can normally be provided by the email service in use, and should be provided before the new hosting arrangement is set up.

If you need any help or assistance, or want to learn more about Web Hosting, call us on 01727 739812

Modern technology has, to a great extent, changed the way businesses obtain, store, retrieve and use the data they have on individuals. How many of us bother to write down (or even remember) a telephone number or email address when we can input details straight on to a P.C. or smart phone?

With developments in information technology and e-commerce there has arisen an entire sub-industry offering marketing lists to start-ups and established businesses. The result is that, in addition to your “home grown” database you could, on receipt of one email, have a database comprising a vast number of people that would otherwise have taken years to build up. Theoretically you now have access to literally thousands of potential customers.

Before sending off your first wave of marketing emails it is worth considering that the combined effect of the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and the Electronic Communications Regulations is to regulate the way personal data is gathered, stored, protected, used and transmitted. Whilst the Electronic Communications regulations are far too complex to deal with in a short blog, they are of great importance to any business that

• collects and stores data on individuals
• is considering buying in or renting a database or
• is considering capitalising on its own database by selling or leasing it to third parties.

Enforcement of The Data Protection Act comes within the ambit of the Information Commissioners Office and their website is helpful in explaining the obligations of what they refer to as “Data Controllers”. It is definitely worth spending some time to look at the website to see whether your operations come within the scope of the Act, and, if so, what actions you need to take to comply with it.

The Electronic Communications Regulations require that, subject to certain limited exceptions, an individual’s consent should be obtained prior to sending them unsolicited advertising by email unless they have already ‘opted-in’ or expressly consented to the receipt of such emails. It is worth remembering that “express consent” means an individual has to take some positive step to agree to receive the emails. Therefore businesses cannot simply rely on a customer ticking a box to indicate that they do not want to receive them which, for some time, was the accepted way of dealing with the issue.

This rule only applies to new customers. You can continue marketing to existing customers provided you give them the ability to opt-out of future messages and that the marketing messages cover similar products and services to the ones already supplied. The rules also deal in detail with circumstances where data is bought in or transferred to third parties with particularly prescriptive regulations regarding the sending of data to a country outside the E.U.

Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, businesses have to inform visitors to their website if they use cookies, and provide an opt-out facility for those who do not wish to accept them. In practice this will mean providing the user with a ‘privacy’ or ‘cookies’ statement that explains how they are being used and how they can be switched off. Individual’s rights will be reinforced by a revised e-privacy directive which is due into force in May 2011. Under the new directive users visitors to a website must be offered clearer information on how cookies are used and simpler ways to control whether cookies can be placed on their equipment.

It can be seen that both national government and the EU are trying to keep pace with developments in e-marketing.

As mentioned, this article is intended to give no more than a flavour of how regulations affect the use of personal information, databases and e-marketing. It therefore makes sense to discuss all aspects of your e-marketing strategy with your lawyer as well as your web designer prior to going live.

Source: Brian Scott at Max Montague Limited
www.maxmontague.com