HTML Email Code

When you need to send your email to your customers it is always easy getting it to look right. HTML email code can react very differently to web browser appearances.

My company Expect Best have experience in HTML email code however if you want to understand a bit more about how it works then I have created this blog for that reason.

HTML Email Code - a balance of text and images

When planning a HTML email the first thing you probably need to think about is the content that you are going to use. You will want to use a mixture of images and text otherwise your email might look too boring, or just not show up on email clients that use text only displays.

HTML Email Code - The context of the email

From a marketing perspective you might want to consider the content of your email, how is it going to attract people to your business? What are they going to click on to make them make a purchase or enquiry? Your email might be educational, or simply informational with no purpose of sale, in which case you may wish to think about how the text is broken up into blocks to make it easy and quick for the user to navigate to the section of HTML email code they are interested in.

HTML Email Code - The subject line

When you create your email you will have a limited amount of space to make an impression and get peoples attention. That doesn't mean you should write in CAPS or use !'s all over the place as this is likely to trigger spam filters. What you need to consider is how you are going to deliver your HTML email code to the user with something which is of value to the recipient. The typical ones might be subjects such as 'save money' or 'limited time only' these may get people to respond quickly however when overused these subject lines are slowly being ignored. Personalisation may help break down this barrier. Something along the lines of 'Hi Bob we have a deal just for you'. The deal might be tailored to match something that Bob had bought in the past and is therefore more likely to be something he is interested in. With your HTML email code you need to consider all of these elements in order to ensure that you can get a better result.

HTML Email Code - Split testing

When you are sending an email you will have a list to send to. You might wish to try two separate emails and see which gets the best results to the subject line you use. If one gets twice as many opens with one subject line in comparison to another then you know that in future you are better off using the subject with the most opens.

Once you are happy with the email, the design and the code and you have tested the above then you can get sending. If you need any assistance or help with this process Expect Best do offer a email design service click here for more information... 

Web Design Bournemouth

My company Expect Best provide web design Bournemouth and other related services but what things should you expect from a web design company when finding the ideal partner for your web design needs?

In this blog I look to outline the basics of web design Bournemouth and the approach that a web company should take when provided web design Bournemouth services.

If you are just looking for a quotation for your web design Bournemouth needs then please feel free to visit our website www.expectbest.co.uk or send me a message alex@expectbest.co.uk

Web Design Bournemouth - Picking the right company for you

So when you need a web design Bournemouth service what sort of business will suit you best? You may need to think about the size of the company you would like to work with, smaller companies tend to be quite quick when it comes to making a start on the work, and can usually place work in and around other projects however if your website design Bournemouth project is a relatively large size then it may be time consuming and will potentially be better placed with a larger web design agency in Bournemouth.

Web Design Bournemouth - Continued Support

To ensure that your project gets the best support moving forwards it may be better to look for a team rather than one person. You don't really want to be stuck when your designer/developer goes on holiday and cannot support or service your site for a week or so, especially in an emergency.

Web Design Bournemouth - Understanding of the portfolio

It is also important when placing your web design Bournemouth project to have a good understanding of the previous work that the business has done. They may be specialists in SEO (search engine optimisation) or may be more focused on e-commerce. Therefore it may be a good idea to look at the type of web projects they have done in the past to see how they fit with what you are looking to do.

Web Design Bournemouth - Timescales

Timescales are also important. We all need to ensure that we are clear at all times on how long a project will take, if it sounds too good to be true then it might be. As a web company we are lucky because we have enough people to draw resources however if only one person can work on your website then it may drag in development time, time you could be using to sell.

Web Design Bournemouth - Hosting

When considering your web design company, you also need to be aware of where they will be hosting your website. The hosting package they offer might sound great but it needs to be great, if it isn't you might be in danger of losing your website. I have had clients come to me because their old web company has gone bust and their hosting supplier has switched off their hosting account. This is not a good thing to happen and then they also realise that the website has gone too. They may have paid thousands and there is no way of getting it back. So ask questions, ensure that the hosting the company will be provided for your web design Bournemouth project is good enough and your website will still be there when you come to check it in a few months time!

Web Design Bournemouth - Security

You need to ensure that your web design project will be secure. You should ask your web design company questions about how the website will be secure and what steps they have taken to ensure this is the case. If they have used a common CMS such as wordpress this generally isn't that secure out of the box, this is because when a problem is found it can be hacked in bulk by hackers making the system a popular target. I am not saying that companies shouldn't use things such as wordpress because they can be secured but it needs to be something that is on the agenda at your meeting with your Bournemouth web agency. 

Web Design Bournemouth - CMS

Moving on from the previous section it is a good idea to ask if your website will be a CMS. This means 'content management system' and means you will be able to make certain updates by yourself such as your opening times on your contact page.

You don't want to have to pay your web company an hours worth of work to make a simple update and they probably don't want to do it for free or overcharge you especially if they have hundreds of customers, that can mean hundreds of updates a week! Therefore for your web design Bournemouth project you should probably pay extra and get a CMS system so you can make simple updates moving forwards.

Another thing a customer might suspect about a CMS system is that it is free. This is correct there are a lot of free CMS systems out there and some are also paid. It might mean you feel that this should bring the price down. This really depends on how much time the agency is going to spend working on your design and build.

If the design is important to you then the web design agency may sink hours into your project and not worry about the layout of the CMS until it comes to it. This can actually take longer but it means you get a website looking just how you want it to and it makes it unique to you and your brand. 

Web Design Bournemouth - Website Ownership

From a legal point of view when doing your web design Bournemouth project you should check who owns the website. It is not difficult to define this so any good agency should be able to give you a clear cut answer. Your website is quite simply the files which are used collectively to produce your website, it may also have a database attached to it so this is something you should ask.

Once you know that you are the owner of these files you should probably ask for a copy. It wouldn't take 15 mins for your web company to take a backup of these files and send direct to you using online services such as 'wetransfer'

Web Design Bournemouth - What's right for you.
I hope this has been insightful about how you as a customer should expect to be treated when looking for a web design agency in Bournemouth.

If you have any questions please get in touch: alex@expectbest.co.uk

Web Design Bournemouth

What is search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation is the process of optimising your website in a way which attracts the visitors you want to be buying your products or services.

In a practical sense it is the implementation of keywords and understanding and implementation of several other factors which all contribute to your website ranking at the top of Google for a given search phrase, as mentioned this phrase is ideally one that would be used by your customers.

What is search engine optimisation - and how can i use it?

You would look to use search engine optimisation if you felt that you could generate revenue online or enquiries which would lead to revenue generation online.

If this is a scenario that you feel applies to you then SEO is very important, in short - every business needs to take SEO into consideration unless it can rely on other channels of enquiries.

What is search engine optimisation - why should i use it

You might wish to use SEO to connect to the people who want your business services. This may be a product too. People are using Google nearly every day to find the content they need.

If you can target a good audience then you have the option to sell them something. This is probably the main reason you should use it. I understand there are also political, educational and emotional factors associated with communicating a message to people about a topic but generally most results are business orientated in some way.

So if you are a business and your customers, who are almost guaranteed to use search engines are searching for something you provide you need to get focused on how you will be targeting those customers by the search engines.

What is search engine optimisation - how much does it cost

SEO doesn't cost anything apart from time. You have a couple of obvious options, spend a lot of your own time potentially getting it right but also potentially getting it wrong or pay for someone else's time who is likely to be getting it right if they have had experience with SEO in the past.

So how much does their time cost? Usually if they are good at it their hourly rate won't be cheap but they will probably get you quicker or longer lasting results. You usually get what you pay for.

I think (and this one might be controversial) that good Freelance SEO practitioners don't really exist. Good SEO practitioners tend to know what they are doing and would of had to employ a team of people to help, so when your 'friends uncles brother' wants to do your SEO you might as well buy some flyers instead as it's not likely they will be able to make much of a success of it. That said they might have been so good and made so much money they retired and do want to do you a favour!

So to finally answer the question, SEO should cost what you want it to cost. If you want to make a million pounds a year then you need to invest a good 10k a month now for the next couple of years... Otherwise what you invest will relate to what you make.

What is search engine optimisation - how does it work

 SEO works when a web search engine crawls your website and decides where to rank your content within it's indexes based upon the words you use on your page. Indexes are the libraries of results that are stored for search engines to be able to retrieve them nice and quickly when someone types in a search.

Optimised content

Therefore to get your website stored in the right indexes you need to be using the right keywords throughout your content so that it will correctly index your site.

If you use the keywords too much however your page will look spammy and chances are it won't be indexed, use them too little and your site won't look too relevant to the search phrase so finding that balance is important. This is what is know as keyword density, some people believe that a percentage ratio is the best way to go with this however I think that just by writing naturally you should be using the keyword and I think that this is what the search engines intended for you to do.

Optimised images

It is not just the text that should be optimised on your pages the images are also important. If you want to get rankings you need to think about the images you are using on the page. To do this you need to ensure that the name of the image is relevant to the content, you also need to ensure that the alt text on the image is present and relevant to the keyword you would like to optimise for.

Optimised links

It is also important that the links on your website make sense and are relevant to the keywords you are looking to target if you want to target a specific phrase then you need to be specific in the links you use otherwise you look like you are unsure of what you are trying to target and if you are unsure then why should the search engines have more confidence about your content than you do?

Further optimisation

There are literally hundreds of 'SEO factors' that people think contribute to good search engine optimisation. This can get really into the realms of techy code and how things relate to one another making pretty much every search engine optimisation scenario different. We have an exhaustive list in-house we use to check each site against and then see what areas can be improved, as we read up on more search engine optimisation techniques if we feel they are valid then we will add it to the list, if we think they don't sound credible then it probably isn't worth the risk of adding them.

What is search engine optimisation - can i use blackhat techniques and what will they do

Black hat techniques are called this because they are designed to trick the search engines. This is probably not a wise move unless you only want to make money this year and not for the next 10 years. If you do manage to trick a search engine and make a quick buck on the traffic when they find out your technique and prevent it you may be at high risk due to your new found dependency on that traffic. If you do things the right way the chances are that in the next update your rankings may go up or down and you can react to them accordingly but it is unlikely you will be removed completely as is quite often the case with black hat techniques.

What is search engine optimisation - how do i make a start

To make a start with search engine optimisation you need to be aware of the keywords you would like to target. If you don't know what these are then you need to think like one of your customers. If you were looking for a product or service you provided what would you type in? This will help you determine what keywords you will need to be ranking for.

However that isn't all you need to think about. You might be at the top for a keyword you have been working on for the past six months and then wonder why you are not getting any new business, unfortunately you forgot to check how many people search for 'accountant in my small town' and the result is no-one, but then in the much larger town next door you have 100's of searches!

You may service that town also but thought because you are based in the other one that that is the one you should target... It is always a good idea to check on the number of people searching on a phrase before you even entertain the idea of optimising for it.

You can then add your keywords to your content on your site based on your research and taking into account some of the previous techniques we mentioned you are then on your way with your optimisation. You may wish to track your results using tools like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to get an insight into what is working and what isn't.

What is search engine optimisation - using other marketing channels

It is generally a good idea (I think) to not put all your eggs in one basket. SEO is good and works well but then it is important that this isn't 100% of your marketing efforts. It is a good idea to also focus on social media, email marketing, building your database and even retaining the offline marketing methods that work well for you.

If there is anything you feel I have missed then please feel free to comment or if you have any questions you can email me alex@expectbest.co.uk

SEO UK

To optimise your site to SEO UK regions then you need to consider something about the nature of your business, can you accommodate orders from the whole of the UK? If you target a national search term you may be happy with the success from this however you may also have a problem if you target something which is too much to handle when you do eventually reach that top spot so before reading on you need to be sure that being at the top spot for the whole of the UK is something that you want.

SEO UK (search engine optimisation) is something that all businesses would probably like to achieve which puts you in a very hard to win competition. This is because so many websites would be targeting these phrases. This doesnt mean that you shouln't SEO for the UK because someone has to be at the top, why not you, it just means that you have to be committed. You cannot stop half way and think that SEO UK just doesn't work, it does for the person who is at the top now. You just need to measure how much effort they are putting in and put in more. SEO UK would be like trying to be the best at a sport in the whole of the U.K. You/your website will need to go through a lot of training to get the be the best. This is the SEO process and if you give up halfway you will never win. You need also a trainer, (SEO company) to help guide and motivate you and naturally you pay the trainer to help you compete. They will do this by conditioning your website and adding the right content, optimising it with balance, not too much not too little, keeping it good for both search engines and visitors. If you want to be at the top of the search engines for SEO UK and you want your business to be the most popular then you do need to spend the time working at it. It will probably take somewhere in the region of 1-2 years to get the top of a search engine for a highly competitive search phrase, how long would it take you to get in shape for the olympics, unless you are an olympian already then you understand exactly where I am coming from!

SEO for UK terms is something that takes time, endurance, commitment and persistence, if you think that you need to be at the top of the search engines for a UK term you can always speak to one of our SEO experts who have experience from local plumbers to multinational billion pound companies. Visit www.expectbest.co.uk for more information..

SEO Bournemouth

For SEO services in Bournemouth you need to chose a company that has an indepth understanding of SEO and how it is applied to a website. If your business is based in Bournemouth and you want it to be optimised for customers locally then you need to consider the set of Bournemouth SEO keywords you would use. If you want to use SEO keywords which will target Bournemouth and other national cities then you would want to look at how you may split your site up to accommodate those other areas.

I run a local SEO company for SEO Bournemouth services, Expect Best which has experience in dealing with local businesses and multi-national companies. That gives us a challenge because our understanding of SEO in Bournemouth has to be so diverse for those companies, we need to know how SEO will be applied and how the customers will respond.

To make sense of this it is maybe easier to think of SEO in Bournemouth like a high street in Bournemouth. If your shop is on the main high street then you are going to naturally get more visits to your store, this will however cost you more in rates and rent because the store is more desirable in that position due to the increase in earning potential. The same theory applies if you are going to have a store online. You need to think of page 1 of Google as the equivalent of the main high street, everyone wants to be there. However you will need to pay more when it comes to your SEO rather than your rates and rent. This level of competition has now been transferred from the offline to the online world and you need to have a good understanding of that before you will be able to optimise and target people for SEO in Bournemouth.

SEO Bournemouth - Setting a budget

How do you decide how to set a budget for your SEO campaign? Ideally you need to think of it as a fixed cost. SEO is necessary and it is likely it always will be. You need to be able to afford to do it all the time you are in business otherwise you will drop off the radar. So how do you decide what you should be paying for SEO? Really you need to think along the lines of 10% of your revenue, if you want to be doing £10k a month online this time next year you need to be thinking of investing at least £1,000 a month in SEO now. Why should you make money unless you invest it in optimising your website? The search engines also need stability you can't just arrive and expect to take the top position. When did you last see a 404 error on the top result on Google? What is a 404 error you probably ask... So we need to be patient. If you are patient and persist with your SEO campaign for your Bournemouth business you will succeed.

SEO Bournemouth - DIY

Would I recommend that you do it yourself when it comes to SEO? This is up to you. You may like to fix your own car or build your own extension but you might not do the best job. If you are going in for a competition to see who did the best job of fixing their car when the other competitors used a mechanic then you might not win. The same needs to be said about Google and SEO for your Bournemouth business, if you are in it to win it rather than take part then you need to set realistic goals, set aside a realistic budget and have a realistic expectation about how long it will take to rank your website. As website SEO specialists in our company we often get calls within days of launching a new site with customers wanting to know why Google hasn't put their site at the top. The answer is quite blunt, your website hasn't earnt it. You may have the best business in Bournemouth but when it comes to ranking your site and getting the SEO Bournemouth position you want it will start at the bottom. This is why many successful offline businesses have failed online because they command instant respect from the search engines due to the size of the company offline. The businesses which tend to do best are those which simply persist.

How will i know if my SEO in Bournemouth is working?

To find out if your SEO in Bournemouth is working you will need to setup some tools for tracking this on your site. This enables the search engines to track and report on the number of visitors you are getting. We would also recommend using Google webmaster tools to see what keywords you are ranking for to save you the time of performing numerous searches for your own website. There will be lots of information that may sound like jargon however generally if there are no complaints from Google then there isn't anything to worry about.

Do I need to do lots of Backlinks for SEO in Bournemouth?

There is a lot of question over backlinks and there can be a lot of confusion about the process. We would recommend to initially keep things simple and if something looks to good to be true or if something looks like a 'good price' to SEO your Bournemouth business then it is probably too good to be true. If you have a brilliant site then people will link to you without you having to pay them. Google soon understands which sites charge for links and devalues them so it may be working today but won't necessarily work tomorrow so rocky backlinks aren't a good way to secure the supply chain for your business. SEO Bournemouth tactics need to be considered carefully in all circumstances and if you think you would like to speak to us about our optimisation services then please feel free to contact alex@expectbest.co.uk or visit www.expectbest.co.uk

Understanding Internet Marketing

Understanding Internet Marketing

Internet marketing as a whole is a collective of the marketing channels which make up our internet marketing campaign. Every business is different and it is therefore important for businesses to identify which channels they should use.

How does a business know which channels they should use? This should be focused around their customers and what their customers use. So how do they know what their customers use?

There are a few tools which allow people to find these sorts of things out if we use them well it makes our life easier and the work we put into marketing online much more effective... If we look at each channel as an example it would help us understand if our customers are likely to use them.

Choosing the best methods:

It is pretty obvious that all customers tend to use Google, but then they also have connections with the internet in other ways. They will also use social media, respond to emails, look at adverts on other websites and so on. They may also be reading blogs like this one.

So if we take SEO as an example it is a good idea to start with the keyword research, this can give you information about the number of people searching on a phrase and should give you an indication of the demand for this.

Once you have identified key search phrase areas this gives you a starting point for creating content, tailored around what your potential customers are searching for. Another scenario may be social media, are your customers using it? We know that pretty much every person engages with social media to some degree, but what will make them react to you using it?

If you are a business to business trade then social media may not be the best starting point because people are using it to connect with friends, however if your business is business to consumer based, then everyone on social media can be a potential customer.

It is worth thinking about who to target and what they are thinking at the time of interaction with that channel to understand how likely they are to respond to your internet marketing in that area.

Marketing using Email Marketing:

If we want to connect to our customers we can send them emails offering news and updates about our products and services however as part of our understanding of internet marketing we may wish to look at a number of factors which will help people to respond to the campaigns they are being sent.

Firstly we need to think about the number of emails we send them, too many and they get overwhelmed or bored of hearing from us, meaning they are likely to unsubscribe, if we send them too little then we may end up losing them to another competitor who looks more pro-active and potentially attractive. Therefore our understanding of this process is key.

We would then have to look at what they would be sent, is our email sales orientated, is it helpful, promotional? This needs to be ideally a mixture of all of them so that the customer is listening to what you have to say.

If every time you email them you are asking for money then unsubscribing is an easy way to save themselves from spending! Also you may need to consider the context of your market. Do they know as much about the subject area as you? Probably not, therefore it is advisable to keep the content in a context which is understandable.

People don't enjoy reading what they don't understand. If you can break down the key facts and details so that it is punchy and simple enough to understand then you are more likely to get a click through if the person wants to read more.

Finally the design also plays a key part. I think that to stand out each email should be carefully designed and considered, people like brands and they like lifestyle, it is hard to attach this in plain text emails.

They need to buy into the lifestyle of what it is you are selling, if you don't do this then you won't make an attractive business to buy into because the next email that came from your competition looked much cooler.

Marketing using Social Media

If you want to attract visitors to your website or business via social media you need to think a bit about the psychology of the users when they are using these platforms.

They may not be interested in what you have to offer if it is too sales oriented so you need to connect with them on a personal level. Your business may be doing something different it may then relate to what they like.

You may be running a cool event or doing something partnering up with another brand they like. When using social media there really does need to be some sort of campaign behind what you are doing rather than just asking people to like your business because you exist and they enjoyed the offline interaction with your company why not make them enjoy the online interaction too. How do you do this?

You can create a competition of some sort or you could create some sort of game / interaction which makes the interaction between your business and the potential client more entertaining.


For more information on our techniques you can visit us at www.expectbest.co.uk or if you would like to speak to me about this article you can contact me alex@expectbest.co.uk