Starting this Friday I will be launching a new feature on my blog - FREE MUG FRIDAY!

Each Friday I will post a new picture up on my blog, which gets 1000's of visits each week plus it gets sent out to my 3700+ followers on Twitter.

This picture will be of me drinking a coffee from a branded mug - what is FREE about it is that you are FREE to send me your mug to drink from.

Each week, the mugs that I receive will be put in order that I get them and I will put up one post per week, The picture will also have the companies name, address, phone number and web address under it so that people can get in touch.

So send my your mugs!

Post your mug or drop it in to:

Ant Hodges
toinfinity
Basepoint Business Centre
Rivermead Drive
Swindon SN5 7EX

Filed under  //   FreeMugFriday  

Loading mentions Retweet

As a member of a church in Swindon that continues to grow, I met with one of the leaders a couple of weeks ago and had a conversation around Church Marketing.

The biggest problem that I think churches come up against (from reading round the internet) is the argument from members of the congregation that Marketing is not in the bible.

Sure I agree that Jesus never said that all churches should have a website, properly designed flyers and leaflets, social media accounts and so on, but he did say 'go into all the world...' - it is the gospel we need to market more effectively.

To over come the point that many might raise about church marketing, the aim for the church should be to share the gospel etc... in my opinion. The gospel never changes, but our marketing strategies must if the Church is to make a lasting impact in our world. It's about becoming more relevant without being pandering to tolerance.

Here are some simple bullet points to think on... to get you going as a member, leader or overseer for a local church. There are no surprises here either...

1. Goals and aims

Take a strategic approach to developing a marketing/communication vision. Think about what do we want to achieve and Why?

2. Alignment

How do these marketing/comms aims align to the values of the Church, vision of the Church and the Bible?

3. Audience

Identify key target audiences such as the Church congregation, specific groups within the Church and specific groups / individuals outside of the church.

4. Current marketing activity

Ask yourself: What do we do in terms of current marketing/comms activity (everything...)? What is the marketing/comms budget for this year? Who does it? Is it measured and working?

5. A one year plan

Messages and marketing requirements for the next 12 months. Including: Events / High Sundays, Campaigns / specific weeks planned (prayer and fasting, outreach etc), Internal comms, Ministries and events they will hold (Sunday School, Kids Church, Homeless Projects etc) - Put these all on a calendar or wall planner in your admin office to show the marketing/comms timeline for the next 12 months.

6. Measuring tactics

Decide how to measure the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns/activities?

7. People

Who will be involved in the Oversight and Ownership, Strategic planning and guidance, Delivery, Admin / Buying

Filed under  //   Branding   Church Marketing   Marketing  

Loading mentions Retweet

I thought I would just show you a couple of before and after shots... for my blog.

I always think that blogging platform templates are great places to start but should never be used as they are for your own personal or business blog.

You need to look at how you can customise it to make it your own. Your own personal or company brand is important and looking like someone else won't help. I have been on many business blogs and I wont embarrass some of them by showing how they look the same because they have used the same wordpress template, and they are not alone.

Customising a blog can be a daunting task for many as they think that they need to dig deep in code and use language like CSS, SEO and Widgets... what do these really mean to the everyday blogger?

As a designer and web developer I am conscious that I can do these things where many can't.

Here are 4 simple tips that work in most blogging platforms for customisation.

1. Always put your photo on the blog - There is no one else like you!
2. Most blogging platforms allow you to change the styling to layout, colours, text, links and images through an on screen interface - tweak everything, even if it is just a little.
3. Dress your blog with a great header - Magazines use a masthead design to distinguish themselves from crowd, you should do the same. Upload a great image to use as your header.
4. Link your blog from your own web address - See mine... http://www.anthodges.co.uk points to http://anthodges.posterous.com. This helps distinguish from all other posterous.com websites

My blog here started life like this:

...and after a complete re-design and coding of a new template I ended up with this:

What do you think? If you have a posterous blog and would like me to help, just get in touch.

Filed under  //   Blogging   Design   Social Media   Stuff  

Loading mentions Retweet

A quick video on the power of social media for your SEO for your website or blog.

Filed under  //   SEO   Social Media Marketing  

Loading mentions Retweet

Recently I have started seeing many people diversifying the services that they offer in business, but into areas that are not their core specialism.

Take it from me... I've been there.

You can't be all things to all people and my firm belief is that you should focus on what you are a specialist in, and niche niche niche.

One of the core problems that many businesses struggle with, who start to diversify, is that of identity.

If you offer one type of product and service, then offer something else, then something else, then introduce something else... people wont remember everything that you do.

When talking to someone about your business, product do you choose to talk about? Everything or just one?

Most people who try and be all things to all men (and women) will try and cram everything that they do into one conversation. What will the person who they are talking to take way from that? If you focus on one thing and give them one nugget to keep hold of, when they hear someone else talking about the thing you mentioned, they will probably remember.

John Adams (2nd president of the USA) was once quoted saying: "It's simply a matter of doing what you do best and not worrying about what the other fellow is going to do" - even though this was almost 200 years ago I so believe in this.

A jack of all trade becomes a master of none! A lesson that I learned in my last business.

I was also told by a business coach once, that one of the behaviours of a failing business was they they try and put hand to anything that they think that they can do in a desperate attempt to try and stay afloat. I think that this is one of the things that my previous business did.

My plea to you... if you can diversify your product offering because you have identified a new niche... resource this well and maybe try to separate this as a new brand or a new business. It can be a great way to grow your income or a business portfolio, but not resourced, financed or marketed in the right way could result in failure.

If you want to chat on this some more and find out what my experience of this was... just get in touch.

I will be honest and also say this... I'm still learning this all too, I'm far from perfect!

Filed under  //   Branding   Business Advice   Marketing  

Loading mentions Retweet

Recently I had a post removed from the Graphic Design Professional Group on LinkedIn (Link to the group) that I am a member of and wanted to share about it here.

[UPDATE: Now I have been kicked out of the group... See a screenshot of my post on the forum asking for feedback on this]

Filed under  //   LinkedIn   Social Media  

Loading mentions Retweet

LightCMS prides itself on being a "....a content management system for web designers. Design sites, upload them to our content management system, and deploy world-class websites your clients can manage themselves. LightCMS is a simple to use, standards-friendly system, and it's built to help your business succeed."

Yesterday they announced that a key service was going to be increased in terms of cost from $495 to $696! $200 dollar increase with no increase in what they will deliver. See their post here

I think that this is a bad move... and particularly from our experience of the last two HTML Xpress orders... we don't feel that we got value for money with the $495.

The decision instantly, with no thought required, would be from our end to not look at taking this service in future. This has pushed it past a break point for us. If you were to look at improving the service, including some additional features in it etc it may be worth it.

The alternative for designers who can't code, which was why this service existed I believe, is now to use another HTML cut up service and learn to integrate the template themselves. But why force designers to learn code and not focus on what they are good at, by increasing this price not just by $100 but $200!

If this was the intention to drive customers to use alternative products, sorted.

As I said... my two pennies worth... a bad move I think.

As an aside... I saw no consultation with people that use the service to ask their opinion. I was set to use this again for the 3rd time in three months, I'm finding an alternative solution now as another $200 does not give great value IMHO.

Loading mentions Retweet

My seminar this afternoon seemed to go well... 17 people in attendance and 4 people watching the live streaming online... here are some pics taken by Simon Apps of www.professional-images.com@simonapps) - Thanks Simon!

Another event on the 12th March will include a couple of special guests also... see here for more info: www.toinfinity.co.uk/online-marketing-workshops

                     

Click here to download:

Social_Media_Mindset_Seminar_-.zip (898 KB)

Loading mentions Retweet

(A post from the toinfinity blog)

I think that in 2009 we all did social media and twitter to death! Agree? What's next?

I was sent a link a couple of weeks ago to a slide share presentation by Rory Murray [Link] but I wanted to pick up on one thing that stood out to me... a common lie that is spouted by many ' Gurus' and 'Experts' about the cost of Twitter and other social media to your business.

A comparison is done on slide 12 between direct mail, billboard advertising and twitter:

It's hard to see how these figures equate to reality - Does the cost also detail the time and effort put into the design, printing etc of the direct mail and billboard advertising? Is the number of customers a true reflection on the ROI these things are so hard to measure?

For one moment do I not believe that Twitter is FREE.

Any one saying this should be hung drawn and quarter for misleading people. The cost involved may not initially be cold hard cash, but I do think that there are other costs that a few (not all) of these so called experts often leave out.

The real cost = Your time!

Social media marketing, like any other marketing vehicle, is a tool to be used in line with your overall marketing strategy for your business. It is not something that should be treated as separate.

The first thing that you will need to understand is the reasoning behind these guys and gals saying it is 'vital for the survival of your business to be on Twitter' and 'The return on your investment is massive!' - if you don't know how to drive a tank, you're gonna be no good in war. Don't jump into social media until you know why you should and how your business will benefit from it. You could just end up wasting your time.

If after looking at this and you feel that there would be a benefit, you may need to then dig in and learn how to use it (and all other related mobile applications and desktop programmes) and how not to use it. Oh... this will not happen in an instant... it will take time.

Once you've learned how to use the system there is then the small matter of either generating content or syndicate other peoples content over the social media platforms... and the small matter of engaging with people that ask questions of you, send you direct messages and also being involved in conversations to generate interest in particular subjects. Will this all happen without you giving any focussed time and effort? No... it will take up more of your time.

Then once you start - how is it going to reflect on you, your brand and your business activities if you stop because you can't keep up. Staying active and in the networks is key to the 'building relationships' focus on social media platforms. More time to plan for the future!

So how do people really find the time to do this whole social media thing?

All in all this whole business of time is the big fear that I hear many businesses speak about. 'I just don't have the time to do all of this' - after sitting down with them and showing them ways in which they can streamline and put strategy to this activity it becomes less of a headache and much more of a great profile building and 'profitable' long term relationship building exercise where transactions may indeed fall off the timeline of relationships.

In light of this I have decided to lay on a FREE seminar in Swindon on the 19th February 2010 where I will go through this much more detail. I will also have a couple of people talk about how they benefit for using social media, given their initial response similar to above.

Date and time: Friday 19th February 2010 - 3pm-4pm (then you can go home early!)

Location: Basepoint Business Centre, Swindon, SN5 7EX - click here for directions - (plenty of FREE parking)

To book in on this seminar call me on 01793 238697 or email seminars@toinfinity.co.uk. Spaces are limited as we don't have a huge seminar room, so book in early.

Filed under  //   ROI   Social Media   Twitter  

Loading mentions Retweet