Welcome to the Escape Blog

In meetings throughout the year, I am often asked what priorities are for a website to ‘appear in search results’.

Unfortunately, I think people are waiting to hear a gem of advice which takes minimal effort and delivers immediate results and that is something I can’t deliver…

Well, at least not as a bit of free advice

But, if I had to give one piece of advice for a website marketer as a new years resolution it would have to be a bit of spring cleaning now.

Get some Google feedback

First thing I would do, if you haven’t done already, is to get your site map into Google and let them tell you where you could improve your web site.

There is an array of information available, including lists of pages that are indexed that may no longer exist. This will give you an opportunity to adjust your Robots file or set up 301 redirects.

Another new feature added a couple of months ago (which is very handy) is a tool where Google advises you on the content of your pages and how it could be improved.

Get rid of dead wood

Every page either helps or hinders your sales process. I’m not talking about traffic here, I’m talking about route to sale. Trim down the number of web pages you have and look to make each one more effective in your selling process.

Work your pages baby

One of the best areas to improve the performance of your website is to improve your web page content.

This very basic practice is so overlooked with website management it’s frightening, but by defining the content of each of your web pages, search engines can index them more appropriately.

This practice also allows you to define each page for specific information. The basis being that you take a set of generic pages with generic focus (or lack of) and define each page specifically.

Use our web page analyzer tool to guide you on your web page content.

One last thing… SEO is not just for Christmas… it needs to run throughout the year.

When I first discovered the Internet back in about 1994/5 I used the iconic Netscape Navigator. But, just over ten years later, it’s sad to say that it’s faded out.

The good news is that it’s not Internet Explorer that is the cause. More likely Firefox - my now web browser of choice - which is home to many of the old Netscape developers anyway.

(via BBC)

So, today is the Christmas party. If you haven;t joined our new improved Escape Facebook Group, you may want to so you can see the aftermath… I promise to get videos and photos.

It’s also tinged with sadness as young Adam leaves us to follow his path to fame and fortune. He has left a mark on The Escape with his dry wit, as well as his talent for web marketing. Good luck Adamski!

(here he is with a special chocolate inscribed with his growing venture relating to showbiz gossip (shameless link there for you Adam)

On the work front, yes we did some this week, the CMS website for Dover Port went live to day. We didn’t design it, but we sure make it work hard.  The system is based around our tried and tested content-management system and I’m sure a case study will soon appear on our new Escape website.

From everyone at The Escape - have a happy holiday !

Sarah made an interesting comment about our new website, remarking on the loss of some of the old content relating to our prices.

That was an important choice for us; a choice that I think will change the type of people who enquire for our services. And that’s exactly why we did it.

I was quite eager on the last website to show ballpark prices for our services to break down barriers and encourage people to contact us. But, the problem came with the focus of the people who made contact.

Most of the enquiries we had were based on the costs, rather than the value of the services we offer. It wastes a lot of time and energy for both parties and potentially sends out the wrong message.

So, the new website focussed on the benefits and the value of the services we offer, rather than the initial costs. What we do hasn’t changed, but the way we sell it had to, to attract the right enquiries.

It’s something on the web that gets overlooked sometimes, good [potential] client focussed content.

The new Escape website is now live. Hope you like it.

Well, the world and his wife seems to have already slowed down… moving towards Christmas… Bah humbug.

This week we sent out out digital Christmas card, which featured Craig in all his glory and The Escapees, showing just how good they are on camera.

Our new Favicon made it’s way onto the web this week, preceding next weeks web launch…. oooooooo.

Rob has been tucking in to ‘client’ lunches all week. Apparently there is now a UK-wide shortage of Chilli Jackets across the country (his favourite client lunch “extravagance”).

On an Escapee note, Adam is leaving us next week to pursue his quest to be the UK’s answer to Perez Hilton, with his Showbiz Spy site, which has really taken off this year. Good luck to Adam. We will all be trying to get him “vey vey drunk” (said in the style of Leslie Phillips) at next weeks Christmas party.

I mentioned earlier today about our spam problem. Then I read this article over at E-Consultancy.

The DMA’s latest stats show that delivery rates fell to 68% for acquisition emails and 80% for retention emails in the period, continuing the drops seen in Q1

Which begs the question, when is a marketing e-mail not spam?

• As a user, I seem to receive e-mails despite not opting in - it’s annoying.
• As a marketer; with some campaigns I send, some users, despite having opted in, still put in a spam complaint.

My personal opinion is that people are lazy. They’ll take the easy option despite any consequences, to which, they will lazily reply later, and that includes (on the user side) not un-ticking a subscribe box, and from a marketers side, adding people to lists without consent.

Of course, you could say that all marketing e-mail could be taken as spam, because most people don’t understand permission and opt-in. They also can’t remember every list they’ve subscribed to or who and when they may have given out their e-mail address.

As we become more and more protective of our e-mail addresses, can we, and will we, forgive the e-mail marketers who do it right, or see them all as spammers like all the rest?

As the firewalls and spam filters get tougher and tougher, and people continue to use random Hotmail accounts to subscribe, the result is a marketing medium that becomes less effective.

That’s why I like the idea of double opt-in e-mail and I think it may be coming to an inbox near you in the next few years.

Double opt-in is where you both agree to accept e-mails from one another up front, hence, subscribing to each others communications.

It’s a bit like when you make friends with people in Facebook and leaves you with control. In fact, between me and you, I think Facebook groups and messaging could be a new avenue to be exploring now…

A favicon is the little logo next to the web address in the address bar - ours is a little ‘e’ in a circle.

If you’ve always wanted to create one but don’t have the software, try Favikon - a cool little online solution.

The website allows you to upload a logo or image and then resize it accordingly. It then creates a file for you, that you simply drop in your website root directory.

In our seminars about e-mail marketing I have quoted very high figures from Spamhaus about the percentages of actual e-mail versus spam.

This week, we implemented an e-mail filtering service and it turns out already, we have eliminated our 91% of e-mail spam - ouch.

1. Tips on improving your customer service from E-Consultancy
2. The importance of a compliant e-commerce website on Retail Bulletin