Making Your Website Work For You

Day 1.    A one day course which covers the basic information that small businesses need to be aware of to ensure optimum performance of their web presence. Throughout the course, if participants on course already have a web presence, these will be critiqued for examples.

Websites

•   Costs
•   Assessing Developers
•   Usability

What can you expect a site to do for you?

•   Purpose/focus
•   Conversion – what is it and why does it matter 
    
         • Basics of Search Engine Optimisation
         • Online advertising

Medium Term Goals – developing relationships and word of mouth

• Blogging
• Social Networks- Linkedin,Twitter, Face book etc
• Forums
• Video – what part can it play

Free Tools

• Analytics
• Forms
• Polls

This programme shows participants how to use the new social media tools on the
 internet.

This is a very practical course which results in each participant building a blog for them-
 
selves and leaving with an understanding of how to make them effective. They may also set up

twitter accounts as well

This program will:

• Explain the various free marketing tools such as blogging, twitter, youtube and linkedin
• Explain how this new way of working with the internet works and why it can be such an

  effective communication tool

• Explain how to be most effective when blogging - and the implications of that in resources
   
  and time

• Bring each participant through setting up a blog for their business s and through the mechan-
   
  ics of maintaining and posting to it.

• Explain the norms of behaviour in this space and how best to utilise them

  Day 2 - 4 FREE WAYS TO INCREASE ONLINE SALES - Blogging and Email Newsletters

Day 2 will consist of a practical one day workshop where participants will be given the opportunity to put in place tools covered on day one. The content of Day 2 may vary in accordance with participants needs.

•  Participants will be shown how to build their own Blog - Using Wordpress to set up a Blog

        Quick Overview of Theory

        Overview of the main functionality of the dashboard

        Posting content - text and images to your blog

        Each participant will set up a blog and post content to it

 

• Email newsletters

        What is an email newsletter and what uses do they have?

        Some examples - good and bad

        How do I send one - the software?

        Writing the text - How to make it effective

        Plain Text V HTML

        Frequency, keeping lists clean, calls to action, personalisation

        Using Group mail, each participant will compose and send mails to the others in the group.