Sage Blog

Content is king, or at least it is in the world of online marketing.

Without well written, engaging and optimised content, you are never going to produce successful campaigns in the digital world. That’s because in the digital world there are two kings, there’s content and then there’s Google. King of Kings.

When it comes to the world of digital marketing, Google is your master. Everything you do, every sentence you type, every blog, tweet, poke and +1 is a small sacrifice on the altar of the search engine, a prayer to the Great Google to bless you with kindness from the Indexing Spiders and deliver your page to the hallowed #1 spot!

Build it and they will come?

Creating content is hard work, it takes time to research, write, edit, approve and publish. So having done the hard part, you really shouldn’t get lazy when it comes to distribution. Don’t assume that just because you have built it, they will come. You need to operate on a broad range of channels to ensure you don’t miss your audience, and make sure your content is working far harder than you.

What this image shows is that your audiences may not overlap across various internet platforms, you need to ensure you have a broad content strategy in place to make sure your content covers all of the bases.

Firstly, you need to be aware that duplicating content can actually be detrimental to search engine performance, so there’s more to content management that just ‘spray and pray’. You need to think carefully about how you make your content work for you.

I would recommend starting by deciding where you want your content to originate; this is incredibly important as the website where the content originates from will receive all of the search engine benefit from the backlinks and references your content generates.  With that decision made, I would recommend looking at some automation, after all none of us are time rich are we?

If this then that

I was recently introduced to a fantastic content distribution tool called If This Then That, which enables you to bypass a lot of the more labourious steps you would encounter manually setting up RSS feeds. It enables you to simply, and quickly create a list of actions based upon input into social media platforms, websites, email etc. and replicates the content across additional platforms.

Tarpipe

An even better tool is Tarpipe, on paper looks very similar to IFTTT, but where it differs is that it allows a much greater range of control over your distribution, not only can you choose where the content is distributed, but which elements of it are transferred, and where to. This means you can set exactly which content is delivered to which platform; and it is this highly targeted approach to content delivery which gets the thumbs up from me.

So with a fresh approach to content management and a few more tools in the bag, make sure that from this day forward you are getting the most out of your content ! Lest the Great Google cast you into 4^th page obscurity!

Alex Walker, Accountants’ Team

Recently I organised a full day’s worth of focus groups, to meet with Sage Accountants’ Division customers. A chance to meet those who buy the products we write about, who receive the marketing material we send and (hopefully) read our flagship magazine – Sage exchange.

A 10-hour day. 5 individual sessions. Around 50 customers in total, all of whom would probably prefer to be on billable time. I must be mad!

Me and my colleagues on one side of the 1-way glass (a little twitchy, wondering whether we were going to like what we heard), the customers sat in the plusher room and comfier chairs on the other (presumably ready to sock it to us). One plus for us though: we had wine in our fridge!

We’d hired a mediator via a local agency, the discussion guides were approved and ready to go, the first group now all sat in their chairs, intros done, the lights dimmed on our side of the glass, the final True Lies impression done by one of my co-workers, so we hit ‘record’ on the video camera.

Turns out, the sessions were extremely insightful.

Not everyone waxed lyrical about us, that’s never going to happen; but we certainly had plenty of advocates and when they came up against the odd person who disagreed, it was genuinely interesting to see people argue over the pros and cons of our work.

It’s reassuring that the majority of people want to be nice, although you’ll always have to accept that not everyone is going to say what you want to hear. Expect to see someone literally jumping around on their seat, sprouting disgruntled feedback before the mediator has even done the intros round. And why not? They’ve given up their time to be there!

Still, I know I adopted a somewhat puckered posture when someone took a pop at my magazine (labelling it “just a piece of marketing!”); and just maybe I found myself approaching the glass, climbing up on the shelf below the viewing pane, ready to flip through it.

Okay maybe I exaggerated that last point, but it does rather force you on the defensive (or attack??) when you’re not hearing a ringing endorsement of what you currently offer.

Thankfully, I remember my über-defensive stance wasn’t needed for too long, as customers started to give examples of what they genuinely liked about our products, our marketing and, thankfully, our little magazine. My arms loosened, hands slipping casually into my pockets, I stepped back from window.

10 hours and 5 sessions seems like a heck of a long day when you think it’s going to be an endless upper and downer, between smiling serenely at warm praise one minute, and then curling up in a ball the next.

But once you’ve decided mentally that you’re just going to sit and listen, take the rough with the smooth to try and form an holistic and objective summary of what customers perceptions truly are, you really do get a lot out of them.  And of course you don’t have to do 5 sessions, but the more you hear and the more you see, the more solid your interpretation is, and you’re not allowing one or two people to skew your summary either way.

Okay they may be tough at times, but I say the more focus groups the better. Blissful ignorance gets you nowhere…

Steve Porter, Sage Accountants’ Team

MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Google Wave, Google Buzz, Ping.

All brand names that meant something once, some of which had tens of millions of users in the online social space, all have something else in common; they tried to be David to Facebook’s Goliath and came off worse.

All of them brought something new to the online social space, a different way to interact with other members, a quirky feature or niche focus. All of them also went the way of the Dodo (barring a few clingy tumbleweeds), and most of those features have been aped by Facebook.

The reasons for their failures are varied, but the end result is the same. Facebook continues to dominate our online social interactions, and with the external feed integration changes Facebook announced at F8, it seems they want to become the landing page for your entire internet experience.

There have been contenders who have stuck it out though; Twitter is a great example of a social network which has managed to hold its own. Whether this is because of its success as a high speed news delivery platform, or the inherent simplicity of the user interface, Twitter for now, can stand alone.

Facebook fatigue?

Google + has come at an interesting time, there is research showing that we are experiencing ‘Facebook fatigue’ due to extensive media coverage, data ownership and regular security setting modifications. Facebook’s latest UI revision has also been met with significant criticism, though Facebook has weathered similar storms in the past. This has all come to the fore at the time that Google + has gone from ‘invitation beta’ to public launch.

What Google + has brought is an interesting way to controlling your content distribution and a smart UI, which allows you to very precisely control what is visible to whom when you post content. Another feature is a multi-user video chat function called Hangouts. Google have also cleverly integrated Google + into the menu bar of their main search engine page, thereby exposing it to users on over 90 million searches a day.

Whether neat functionality and high levels of exposure will be enough to keep Google + above water are questions that only time can tell the answer to. Google + has grown very quickly, in fact it is estimated to have over 20 million users already, which far outstrips the performance of any of Google’s previous attempts to enter the social space. The problem is that Facebook at current estimates has 800 million users, 50% of which will check their profile every day.

The new Facebook…

Personally I think Google + has an uphill challenge in front of it; Facebook has already integrated Subscriptions and Lists, which mimic Circles, so the question is does Google have anything else in the toolbox? To me the classic error of any new social media website is to try and ‘be the new Facebook’, not because the site itself might not be up to scratch, but because users are lazy and don’t like change.

Having been using Google + for a couple of months now, I’m still undecided. There are parts I’m really fond of, like the clutter free UI and parts I really dislike, such as the people finder. The latest figures show a thirteen-fold growth in traffic to Google + since their public launch, so there may be hope yet for the network’s survival.

What are your thoughts, does Google have the ammunition to take on Facebook and win, or do you think Google + will follow the footsteps of Wave and Buzz?

Alex Walker, Accountants’ Team

As a copy writer I’m surrounded by words. They are the tools of my trade, the source of my income and I’m lucky enough to enjoy them immensely, especially in their written form.

But where did it all start? As human beings, when did we decide to take the language we’d been using to communicate amongst our tribal groups and write it down?

Watching Stephen Fry’s Planet Word (BBC 2, Sundays 9pm), I discovered that our earliest written ‘documents’ were in fact impressions made in clay tablets. And the subject of these ancient writings? Not faith or power or politics or love. But a matter of accounts.

Some of the first forms of writing constructed from simple pictograms, recorded payments to workers in beer. An early form of payroll records.

Writing soon spread as it became useful and necessary to exchange information about law, messages about battle and so history was made. And trade meant that the written word continued to spread and develop as traders moved good and recorded transactions all over the ancient world, totting up their profits and keeping track of their stock.

Sage hasn’t been around quite so long as that ancient writing. But even in our 30 years we’ve seen a lot of changes to business and communications, from floppy disks to cloud computing. And I’m sure in the next 30 years there will be even more. But even if we’re not ordering Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters in galactic dollars, next time you tap those transaction details into your mobile phone, remember you’re continuing an ancient tradition of business writing that goes back many thousands of years of human history.

Michelle Nicol, Sage Copywriter

Lots of small businesses are finding it tough going at the minute. Raising overheads and downturn in consumer spending are reasons as to why some businesses are struggling.

As a marketing geek, it’s at this point that I start thinking about strategies to cope with conditions like this. One of my favourite marketing models is the ansoff matrix, don’t worry you don’t need to know it to continue reading this blog. But this matrix details one of the options I think a lot of small business owners are turning to find growth. Diversification; the process of bringing new products or services to new markets.

Bringing new products to market is something I’ve done a few times here at Sage. Over the last few years I have focused my attention, and that of my teams’ on conducting the research needed to bring new products to market, and I’ve learnt a few things I wanted to share.

I’ve spoken to thousands of small business owners in this period; held 1-2-1 depth interviews, run focus groups, networked, held seminars and conducted all kinds of customer / market testing. All of this with one purpose in mind; to answer the questions needed to get to market.

Research, research, research

The biggest piece of advice I could give to anyone looking to diversify their business is to do lots and lots of research. There are so many sources of data and information out there that to not do your research puts any business at a clear disadvantage.

The main question to ask when developing a new product or service is “what problem are we going to solve for customers with this product/service”? Recently we launched Sage One, a series of online accounting services for small business owners and their accountants. With Sage One we’re solving a number of problems; accessing data from multiple locations, helping accountants collaborate and giving business owners help and support outside of normal office hours. All of these problems came out in our research.

What else should you consider?

Once you’ve answered that key question it’s time to think about some of the other questions you need the answers to:

• Can you build a value proposition?
• How do your potential customers currently solve the problem?
• Do you have any competition? What do they offer? How much do they charge?
• How much will customers pay to solve their problem?
• How can you target potential customers?
• What are the risks involved?
• How does this new product or service fit with your portfolio (whatever else you do)

All this is just one part of the concept phase of product development; there are other important processes to go through too. Making sure the financials add up, sizing the market, analysing competitors in depth and fully evaluating risks are key tasks to undertake.

So, is it a good idea?

Finally if all of the above points to the idea being a good one, well that’s where the rest of the fun starts. Planning and ultimately launching a new product is hugely rewarding.

Just last week I spoke to a customer who’s a serial entrepreneur. Jeffery of JRLinton, a small business specialising in electrical goods told me of his new business selling fast food online. After explaining to me how he discovered the market potential he added “I’d forgotten how hard it is to bring a start-up idea to market and how much work is involved!”

Michael Barber, Sage One Team

‘I don’t get Twitter, isn’t it just like status updates on Facebook?’

I think I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve had this conversation, and it amazes me every time that micro-blogging and following doesn’t translate to so many potential users.

To see Twitter simply as a broadcast media you miss out on one of the most significant elements of the platform, which is its ability to build multiple customised streams of data which relate to your interests and specialisms. Twitter allows you to keep abreast of the latest developments in virtually any field in real-time.

Take for instance, Ornithology.

Finding birds on Twitter!

Now I know nothing at all about birds, but if I was to suddenly take an interest, I could do a lot worse than use Twitter to find out about it. The first tool I would use is the search bar to research Ornithology.

The feed has a plethora of users posting images of birds they have seen, articles and websites all relating to Ornithology. I can also now see a number of popular #hashtags (searchable keywords) relating to Ornithology, such as #birding which gives me information about what types of birds Ornithologists have sighted, and where.

I can then refine my search further to #birding uk, which now tells me exactly where sightings have been made in the UK. I could use this information to plan out my trips to see these birds in the wild.

People results

Another useful tool for me would be the ‘People results’ which are listed on the right hand side, next to each search feed, these users all write content relevant to my search queries and so choosing to ‘Follow’ them will populate my ‘Home’ feed with lots of relevant information about my new hobby!

You could also browse through those user’s Followers to find other like-minded people; all of a sudden I’ve got a vast library of real-time content updating constantly about Birds, Birders, Birding and all things Ornithological.

Crowd-sourcing content

On the flip side though, Twitter is unbeatable as a focussed broadcast media, the ability to crowd-source content using #hashtags has fantastic potential for many fields.

Say for instance that you had spotted a particularly rare bird, for example a Montagu’s Harrier (Thank you Jeeves!) by creating a hashtag ( i.e. #montagusharrier) you and other users can search for the latest information about this bird.

By using the #montagusharrier tag, you could tell other Birders exactly where you saw the bird, and when. You could post images you might have taken, sound clips, video, blogs, the list is endless.

This information could be used to plot the bird’s movements, help other Birders and might even help to inform scientists about its behaviours!

An unusual example but one that shows the depth of information you can call from Twitter relating to any topic. I hope that this post may have provided some clarity about what Twitter does, and why it’s not ‘just like status updates’!

Alex Walker, Sage Accountants’ Team

What is an infographic? Well put simply, it is a visual representation of information or data, which translates the information into simple images and dialogue.

One of the better know examples is the London Underground Map, which takes a network of train lines and stations of potentially overwhelming complexity and using simple colour coding makes it simple, navigable and beautiful.

We decided to try our hand at infographics because as we’re sure you know, the world of accountancy, finance and taxation can be complex. And we feel that there are better ways to present this data than just through tables! The beauty of infographics is that they also allow you to provide a narrative to the data, whilst representing the numbers in a manner that is more easily digested.

We chose to produce an Accountant’s Overview of Social Media as we know from our recent Roadshows and Virtual Conference that it is a topic which is prompting a lot of debate in the industry.  I hope you find it useful and if you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it!

So without further ado, here is Sage Accountants’ Division’s first infographic:

Alex Walker, Sage Accountants’ Team

I’ll be totally honest, I care about the environment. Not in a happy-clappy, tambourine playing, hug a tree and wash yourself in a river kind of way. More like the rest of you, I’ve become accustomed to separating my cans from my bottles and paper, which led me to think more about my buying behaviours and what I can do to prevent excess waste and minimise landfill.

This I feel is a common sentiment. We all care about the planet, we don’t want to see natural resources wasted and we try our best to do our bit to help.

The environment and marketing

Alex Walker, Sage Accoutants' team

I work in Marketing, which as an industry doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to sustainability. Most of us regularly receive Direct Mailers which go straight into our rubbish bins, and if you’ve ever been involved in a rebranding exercise it’s often shocking quite how much redundant collateral is thrown out.

How many leaflets just get binned after events?

By far and away, the worst offender though has always been the Events industry. And it got me thinking is there another way? Think about any stand you’ve even been on, or visited for that matter. Over the course of a couple of days they will hand out thousands of flyers, leaflets and other items of promotional material. If you take that number, then multiply it by the number of stands at the venue, and then multiply it by the number of events the venue hosts you begin to get an understanding of the scale of the waste problem.

Most of us if we put our hands up will admit that we only ever read 5% (or less) of the materials we take away from an event again, in fact most of us probably just keep a hold of salient business cards and the rest will end up in a bin eventually.

Then there is the issue of transportation, for all of the material, displays, badges, giveaways and other paraphernalia have to get to the venue and generally the only way to do this is by car or van. All of the delegates have to make their way to the event as well, while many will try to make use of public transport, the reality is that the majority still drive. All of this traffic adds up to a substantial carbon footprint for even a small event.

The Events industry does recognise there is a problem and is taking measures to improve standards and share best practice. In fact they are currently developing a British Standard for environmental practice in events. (BS8901)

Virtual conferencing

I was very excited to chance upon a new approach to Events which I believe will help to alleviate these problems. It’s called ‘virtual conferencing’ and I was introduced to it through the ACCA Global Virtual Conference, where Sage will be hosting a stand. The premise behind virtual conferencing is that it allows your delegates and exhibitors to interact in the same way they would at a physical event, but all through a computer at their desk.

Exhibitors have a fully branded virtual stand which allows them to network with delegates, host web-chats on areas of specialism and run surveys and giveaways.  Delegates can use the stands to access and download content to their computer, without it ever needing to see a printer.

For me this approach is a ‘no-brainer’, not only does it take delegates away from their work for less time, but they still come away with all the relevant information they need to inform their decisions without the inherent carbon footprint. I’m looking forward to seeing this method of conferencing in practice. We’ll be hosting our first virtual stand at the ACCA Global Virtual Conference on the 27^th of July, why don’t you log in and take a look?

Alex Walker, Sage Accountants’ Team

Paul Donno

Sorry – competition now closed – We’re giving away three free tickets to the ICAEW’s Business Benefits of Social Media (in association with Sage). To win leave a comment on this blog post by Thursday 30th June and we’ll randomly chose the winners. Don’t forget to include your email address!

It revolutionised our leisure time, now social media is redefining the way we do business too. Or is it? I work in marketing and over the past 3 years social media has become a widely used communication channel; every campaign that I work on now has a ‘social media’ element.  I happily admit that I live in a ‘communication’ bubble due to my role, so was left wondering if the rest of the world is switched onto using social media for business…or is it just us?

It seems that the answer from accountants is “yes, we are interested”. So interested in fact that ICAEW approached us about partnering with them to create a social media event for accountants, as they felt there was a need for accountants to get more information on this subject and how they can use it to market their practice. Obviously we agree!

So is it useful to my business?

Like all marketing tools, getting it right takes time and energy. A well-defined social media plan will help you achieve further growth. And as accountants are finding out, the benefits of an effective strategy can be many and varied, offering cost-effective ways to market your practice and services.

Ok, sounds good, but give me an example…

This is where I hand over to Accountant, Paul Donno, who has been one of those accountants keen to embrace the trend which is now providing him great results. His Suffolk-based practice, Paul Donno & Co Ltd, serves more than 300 small to medium-sized clients and has had a formal social media strategy in place since 2010.

For us it’s about branding and marketing, about putting a human face to our business and broadcasting our messages to a wider audience.

It gives clients a snapshot of who we are and how we operate and can work well as a recruiting tool. It is straightforward to negotiate, extremely cost-effective – in most instances it will only cost you the time it takes to update your account – and it’s fast too.

We use it in a variety of ways, most notably to tell people about things like training courses. The results speak for themselves. We’ve just had bookings for two days of ACT! training as a direct consequence of our Twitter advertising.

Our followers are growing every day, so much so we’ve taken on an external agency to manage our account for us. Now we’re looking to identify further channels and ways of reaching our clients and market.”

Paul’s Tips For Social Media Success

Be consistent

If you are going to have a social media presence, you must be prepared to maintain it. There’s no point starting something you can’t finish!

We’ve issued three iPhones to staff on the condition that they use them to tweet every day, that way we know there will always be a steady flow of information.

Decide on tone and content

Think carefully about the image you want to project – and the language you need to use to do this.

In relation to content for our corporate Twitter account, my brief is actually fairly wide. At this stage, I’m as interested in the idea of creating a solid social media presence as the content. I trust my team to produce tweets and content that is appropriate – in the same way I’d trust them to attend a networking event and behave in a way that was respectful.

Think engagement

For me, social media is a great way of engaging with people – and showing them the human side of your business. With that in mind, content has to be engaging – interesting enough to keep their attention and relevant enough to keep them coming back for more.

Who will manage things moving forward?

Many practices, including ours, consider taking on an external agency to manage and implement their social media strategy. They can help monitor your output, take care of day to day maintenance and also measure your success.

Joined up thinking

It’s worth thinking about how you are going to let people know you have a social media presence and where they can find you.

Linking different platforms – websites, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages– is relatively straightforward and can help direct traffic. We have recently added a live Twitter feed to our web page to ensure clients can see what we’re saying, and what our thoughts are, across a range of platforms.

Look ahead

Technology is constantly transforming the way we communicate and we are always looking for the next ‘big thing’. YouTube is going to be massive for us. We’re looking in to using it at the moment because it’s great for putting short, sharp messages across in an accessible way.

Follow Paul Donno @pauldonno

Follow Sage UK @sageuk

To register or find out more go to ICAEW Business Benefits of Social Media in association with Sage or follow  #icaewsm on Twitter

Sheryl Thomposon, Sage Accountants’ Team and Paul Donno, Paul Donno & Co Ltd

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only magazine editor who sat there last Wednesday night, 15^th June, between 9 and 10pm, with my head in my hands, speechless and in disbelief, at what was unfurling on The Apprentice.

Steve Porter, Exchange Magazine

Hip Replacement?

The mind-meltingly patronising ‘Hip Replacement’ magazine was being pitted against the outdated, garish and gauche ‘Covered’; the former being described as something Viz would mock up, the latter boasting a section classily entitled ‘blowing your load’.

Clichés such as ‘funky’ were being thrown around in wild abandon. “Old people” were being asked what, well, “old people” like nowadays. Guys from the GQ generation were being stopped in the street and asked what they’d blow their aforementioned load on.

In both instances, the response that came back was one of incredulity or just plain dismissal! “I don’t want to tell you” was a common retort when the men were quizzed, and when the “hip” bunch were asked for their input they made it clear that 60 year olds don’t want to think that they’re 60.

So, what followed had me sat eating my arm, as the guys’ utter lack of engagement with the load-blowing section were overlooked, and Hip Replacement was rolled out containing imagery of, well, 60 year olds embracing in the most awkward, unnatural pose – looking every single one of the 60 years they weren’t supposed to be making reference to.

Even for viewers who have never been even remotely involved with magazine editing it was cringe worthy stuff. The looks on the faces of the publishers was priceless, and I never got bored of their reaction to the title ‘Hip Replacement’.

Getting your content right

But then I thought, well what about my own periodical – ‘exchange’ magazine for Sage Accountants’ Club?

Is it right that I sit here, throwing smug criticism after smug criticism at the television screen?

Is my magazine so targeted, so newsworthy, so well written that I can laugh outlandishly at two other magazines falling so far short of the standards of my own prized publication?

Obviously the answer I came to very quickly is “of course it is!”

I guess every editor likes to think that they’ve got their content absolutely nailed down; that they have the right mix of informative, interesting and topical articles.

The harsh truth, though, is that you’re never going to get it absolutely right all of the time – you try to provide the right content for as many people as possible and I suppose you have to accept that 100% of the stuff in there isn’t going to be right for 100% of the readers. But I find the best way to gauge how well you’re doing is to ask the readers, but more importantly to listen to what they’re telling you and then acting on it.

We’ve previously sent out feedback forms with exchange magazine, breaking down all the sections and asking people to rank then. We’ve asked what they want to see more/less of, and all the time we try our best to take this on board. So that customers can see the results in future editions.

My first task as editor of exchange was to completely relaunch it; to give it a complete makeover and to make sure it contained what accountants wanted to see. But even when we relaunched it, in November 2009, we knew we wouldn’t get it 100% right first time. So we used 2-way dialogue with our accountant readers to get their thoughts.

We found out quite early that readers didn’t like the very wide page format, so we changed it and slimmed it down. They wanted to see more technical information and tips on our software, so we doubled the no. of pages dedicated to it.

I’m not saying that exchange is now 100% right for everyone, far from it. But I like to think that it’s constantly moving in the right direction. And we’ll only edge further to that impossible 100% through continuously listening to the folk that read it.

So maybe I won’t be as hard on those Lord Sugar wannabes next week, as I know they didn’t have the luxury of time in order to get their magazine right. And maybe I need to up my game, as it takes me 3 months to produce an edition of exchange, whereas they did it in 9 hours!

And I certainly won’t be shouting at the tele again – because I know they won’t be listening!!

Steve Porter, Exchange Editor