Free Technology Seminars at the Tower Hamlets College-Innovate Her

We run 2 hour FREE technology seminars for the European Regional Development Fund programme called Innovate Her at the Tower Hamlets College.

These free seminars are available to women-owned SMEs who are currently trading in in the Newham, Tower Hamlets or Hackney areas.

The places for these free seminar are limited so if you want to take part, please urgently call Tower Hamlets College Business Support on 020 7510 7633, email them at business.support@tower.ac.uk or register online at http://london-business-support.eventbrite.com/.

Dates for our next workshops:

February 2011 Thursday 10th (1pm-3pm: E-commerce, 4pm-6pm: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO))

March 2011 Thursday 10th - (1pm-3pm: Social Media, 4pm-6pm: Pay Per Click (PPC))

April 2011 Tuesday 12th - (1pm-3pm: Email Marketing, 4pm-6pm: Social Media)

Here is an outline of the content of the workshops we will be hosting:

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is all about refining your website, its content and links in to your website so the search engines, like Google, rank your website highly.  In this seminar hear how to improve your website so search engines, like Google, lists or ranks it better/higher. Hear how the bet the Lucidica Chief Executive Officer (CEO) had with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in early 2009 went – could he get Lucidica from page 72 to page 1 of Google in less than 3 months for the primary search phrase, “IT support London”?  Lucidica pass on all the lessons they learnt in this bet and how they dramatically climbed the Google rankings by doing this themselves.  There are many simple things any business can implement to get them - or at least much closer - to the Holy Grail of search, page 1.

There will be plenty of time at the end of the session for you to raise specific questions around this topic, which are relevant to your business.  So be sure to think and prepare a few questions in advance.

What you will learn:

• How Google and the other big search engines work
• Seven top tips you can take away and start implementing the next day, to boost your rankin
• Some of the bad techniques and tricks some people employ in their SEO, and the massive penalties of being caught out by a search engine like Google
• How to narrow down the primary search phrases you should be using in your SEO, and how many searches are conducted for your phrases each mont
• The powerful and free tools Google provides to help you improve your website ranking
• How much time you should be focusing working on your site for SEO as opposed to off-site, getting inbound links
• The value of getting to page 1 of Google, what it can mean for your business’ sales and marketing

Email Marketing
How to use professional looking emails, in bulk, to market effectively to prospective customers and/or keep your existing customers informed (e.g. newsletters). Lucidica will explain how their monthly newsletter more than pays for the investment of time each month, by generating increased sales and loyalty from their customer-base.  Bring along your laptop along if you would like to participate in the practical session at the end (set up your own mailing lists and send a test newsletter to yourself in the session!).

There will be plenty of time at the end of the session for you to raise specific questions around this topic, which are relevant to your business.  So be sure to think and prepare a few questions in advance.

What you will learn:

• What you can use email marketing for, not just cold spamming of prospects
• The industry average read rate (the % of emails sent that are opened by the recipients)
• How to increase the number of emails that get through (i.e. techniques to reduce being blocked by spam filters etc)
• The best (and almost free) online email marketing tool we’ve found and, at a high-level, how to use it
• Things to avoid doing, so you keep unsubscriptions to a minimum and aren’t blocked or blacklisted by email servers
• How much time you should invest in preparing, sending and analysing a monthly client newsletter
• The value of sending regular email marketing, especially to your existing client-base

Pay Per Click (PPC)
Ensuring you're getting the most from your Pay Per Click (PPC) – Lucidica share all the mistakes they’ve made and lessons learnt on how to get the best return for your Pay Per Click (PPC) budget.  PPC, like Google AdWords, is the fastest way to get to page 1 of Google and although it’s not as trusted or effective as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), it is still a worthwhile tool to have in sales & marketing.

There will be plenty of time at the end of the session for you to raise specific questions around this topic, which are relevant to your business.  So be sure to think and prepare a few questions in advance.

What you will learn:

• How the Google AdWords and other PPC systems work
• Why PPC is a better investment than banner advertising and other forms of paid online advertising
• The importance of testing your ads, monitoring and refining on a regular basis – why you can’t just “set and forget”
• How to get your Cost Per Click (CPC) down with minimal effort, boosting the return on your PPC investment
• The key goals and statistics to aim for around your PPC campaigns (e.g. ad position, CPC and daily budget)
• The value of investing even a small budget in PPC

Here is another testimonial:

"I attended the Google AdWords seminar run by Tom Jeffs of Lucidica at the British Library in August. Since making the changes to our Adwords campaign for our spy shop, SpyOnYou.co.uk we’ve found our sales have doubled compared to the last three months. Thomas provided easy to understand guidance on what keywords to use in Adwords campaigns and what changes to make so that your adverts work effectively. Importantly, he teaches you how not to get caught out by running weak adverts and wasting money…after all you’re paying for them! Our Adwords campaigns are now paying for themselves through the sales we’ve made since the seminar. Thanks Thomas! " Cameron Gowlett, Director of Cerberus Investigations.

 

Social Media
We’ll discuss which social media small businesses should employ, when and how frequently.  The social media tools covered include FaceBook, Twitter, blogging (what to write about, how often and should you even invest time in this), LinkedIn (why every business should be using LinkedIn, and how to create a highly professional profile) and E-commerce (allowing customer to buy products/services from your website, or pay their invoices).

There will be plenty of time at the end of the session for you to raise specific questions around this topic, which are relevant to your business.  So be sure to think and prepare a few questions in advance.

What you will learn:

• What are the social media tools that are working for business (e.g. FaceBook, LinkedIn, Blogging, Twitter)
• How often you should be posting to your social media channels to be effective
• Why are some businesses getting a return from social media and others not
• Some of the best tools you can use on each social media platform to reduce your time and increase your presence and effectiveness
• The overall social media strategy and how it should fit into your business development or sales & marketing plan/strategy
• The value of social media and investing a few hours a week into it

E-commerce
Understand how to add functionality to your website so customers can buy products or services, or even pay invoices online.  This not only streamlines your administration but will also boost sales, as people have another channel in which to buy from you – and 24 hours a day.  This seminar will also outline some risks to minimise, and the best techniques to ensure your e-commerce set-up is as quick and professional as possible.

There will be plenty of time at the end of the session for you to raise specific questions around this topic, which are relevant to your business.  So be sure to think and prepare a few questions in advance.

What you will learn:

• How does e-commerce actually work on your website and through the internet
• What are the different e-commerce platforms or options you can choose from
• The costs in implementing e-commerce, maintaining it and the transaction fees
• How long it takes for funds to deposit into your account and clear
• What the risks are accepting payment over the internet, and how these credit card payments increase your exposure and liability to the bank differently from PDQ transactions
• The value of implementing e-commerce into your site