Around a month ago I was introduced to a new online tool / app called Canva by Guy Kawasaki, Peg Fitzpatrick & Mari Smith in a Google Hangout. Its a simple tool that runs through your web browser and is Free to […]
Remember when your were just a kid and your grandparents would sit you down and tell you this “true” story about some other kid just to get you to wash your teeth or eat your peas ? Well that was […]
Storytelling is something I touched on last week as a way to sell your products online, I was inspired to write about it after reading a few blogs which discussed how actually we are all quite bored of corporate buzzwords […]
When you think about promoting your business online, most people will think “social media” is the way to go – They will have heard the stories of how social media has led to companies being valued in the Billions and […]
Finding a product or service online has never been so easy, constant Google updates mean you’re always going to be getting the best results from across the UK or the globe. But when you want something local, Google has you […]
A few years ago I launched a website for piano lessons in hyde, for my other half Sarah Petrie. Since then, I’ve had a bag full of emails and tweets asking about how to optimise a musicians website or a […]
Improving the popularity of your blogs requires lot of effort. Promoting your blog and improving its visibility are essentially two sides of the same coin. Promoting your blog involves letting more people know about the content of your blog posts over the […]
All too often, Internet marketers get caught up in search engine optimization and fail to recognize that it is merely one aspect of running a business online. This attitude is a leftover from a different era on the Web, when […]
Last week I posted an article about an acronym, namely BOOBS, the post itself didn’t cause upset but the image used with it did. The image was selected on purpose as a trial / experiment to see what the reaction […]
One of my passions in life is great coffee, I am a self confessed caffeine addict and around 50% of the time run on its energy. At the start of the year I heard about a new “coffee club” called Kopi. […]
This weekend I officially began the move to change all my companies services under one umbrella, that of SEO Andy – rather than Andy Kinsey Designs. The move came about for a few reasons, primarily for consolidation to make the offerings of […]
Google+ now has a staggering 100 million users, this may seem insignificant to the 800 million of Facebook but unlike Facebook Google+ has much to offer to businesses beyond it’s user base. Well it’s owned by Google and it’s integrated […]
Last year sociagility looked at the social brand value of 50 of the world’s leading brands, creating a revised top 50 ranking according to their social media performance. The findings are seen below in this great infographic.
April 1st, otherwise known as April Fools Day, is just like most other days. There is little exceptional about it, unless you count the first 12 hours during which time the only limitation is your imagination. This post isn’t about […]
Last week I found out about Facebook changing it’s business pages from the existing “old-style” app business page to a more profile like “timeline” page. I personally at first found the new layout a mess and quite hard to use, but there are some new tools, nice features and prospects to really use the idea of app’s a little better.
If you have not already seen a new style page to see ours.
Psst don’t forget to click “like”
The first thing you will notice with the new layout is the large cover photo, the profile image stands out more as do the 4 main applications of a page (you can have more but only the first 4 show without clicking to show more).
Cover Photo – This is a great visual connection point, its huge real estate (815px x 315px). You can change it as and when you want to suit your needs. A draw back is you can’t use it to say “sale now on”, “hit like” or anything of this elk – its not a bill board … this of course has its good and bad side but I think it’s pretty good as it means you won’t see lots of the same type of spammy cover photo. This is a creative space for you to showcase your latest work.
Profile Picture – Having given with one hand they are taking with the other. You now have a profile picture, the same as that on your personal profiles. This means its a square (it should scale from 180px x 180px to 32px) and no longer a tall rectangle. It’s important to remember this needs replacing and not leave it a week before you notice it, like i did – oops.
Photos and Apps – Your photos and applications will now appear below your cover photo and to the right of your information box (which is just below your profile image, so do update your information). You can customise the order each item appears in, if at all using the app’s admin area under “manage” (formerly edit).
Larger Stories – Although limited to half the page you can now show off larger photos on your timeline than in an old post. You can show off multiple photos with one large one if you upload multiple images and well you can ask questions, pin stories (keeps them at the top of your page). It’s a nicer look than the old pages that’s for sure. But note after 7 days nothing will appear on the left hand side if you haven’t added an update.
Highlight Stories – if you click the star on a story you can highlight it as being important, it will become a full width item, great for photographers and crafters showing off their goods or putting up a poster maybe … there are many uses i’m sure including video. Its not clear what other side impacts highlights may have from Facebook optimisation to search optimisation, if any.
Milestones – You can add great big milestones to your timeline, at any date previous or current. I will be playing with this to upload an image (843px x 403px) of client design work I’ve done. Again it’s unclear of the impact though you are warned not to over use the highlight tool or milestone tool – they don’t say why but I suspect it will get messy and your edge rank may go down a little.
Are Others Engaged? – On the right hand-side below your photos and apps you will see a friend section, 2 boxes – 1 showing who likes you and another whos talking about you. Its a great instant way for outsiders to see some interactions and how popular your page is.
There is a new management tool in town. If you are the admin of a page it is just above your new cover image and shows you insights, interactions, latest likes, notifications and messages. It’s a brilliant quick overview of your page, you can hide and expand this at any time (top right of the page).
From this box you can also manage your page, grow and engage your audience and find help from facebook documentation.
There is also something called the “activity log” (under manage page). It offers insights into how your page and posts are being used. You can filter by date or post type, from this you can then edit a post, star it, highlight it, pin it etc.
Anything Else? – Yes you page can now accept messages, if people have liked your page and you’ve turned messages on your audience can now contact you. It’s a nice simple contact tool, and beats that old app you had to do it!
So you are ready to move to the new facebook business page, or you’ve been forced to as it’s passed March 30th – what do you need to do to ensure the success of your new page. Below is my checklist for having a successful new facebook page.
Don’t forget to hit “like” on our page, in the sidebar or .
The newest player to the Social Media group of empires is . It started with a rock road, telling businesses that it was a “no go area” for them, months later Google opened it’s doors to business profiles – though they acted just like human profiles, and still do largely. Google+ is still on the small side, its take up in the UK in general isn’t huge but it still has a big effect on business and search marketing. So there is no question that you should be using it for business but what is the best way to do this right now?
As of this second my advice is to do 2 things;
1 set up a personal profile and 2 set up a business page from this.
Run content side by side for each, but try to encourage use of your Google Plus business page where possible. That of course is on the basis that you are not an individual and you are wanting to promote a business and not yourself or just your work. If that is the case simply have a personal profile.
has more limitations than most social networks, but it also has some great features and more on the way we are told. For example Google Hangouts are an awesome way to have a small group communication and meeting or to launch a video podcast from… or a town hall meeting, such as what Obama has recently.
Here are my 5 tips for effectively using Google Plus to Market Your Business
If you want to share your tips for marketing using Google+ please do leave a comment below.
And don’t forget to hit +1 on the left of this article and Add to Circles from the widget on the right 
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Following feedback on my recent post about , my friends at told me they wanted to know more about Twitter how they can begin to use it for business growth.
Twitter have a massive userbase across the globe. It comprises of all kinds of people, men women, adult child, artists zoo keepeers and many more! As such a common question is can Twitter be utilised as a marketing tool for a given product or service?
I think the title of this post answers that, yes of course twitter can be used for marketing. Indeed, Twitter is one of the best marketing tools on the market today, from simple exposure of a product to direct selling – Twitter is Amazing for Marketing.
Although there are many ways to use twitter optimally I want to today concentrate on just 5 techniques for getting to most from Twitter as a platform for communication. These ideas are based on an assumption that you have completed your account description, have a good handle, have a brand-led profile image, have your web link in the profile and have a background that is consistant with your brand. For an example of this see my own account and compare its design to andykinsey.co.uk
Follow Your Idols, Friends and Similars
When you start on twitter you will be a blank canvas. Twitter will say follow these celebs, don’t bother, search for other artists if you are an artist, other designers if you design etc – follow your friends and idols. These are folk you are likely to get some kind of conversation with, speaking of which…
If you have any comments on these tips or would like to share your own tips leave a comment below.
And don’t forge to tweet me 
@andykinsey
is an online pin board for photos and graphics of things people love and are passionate about. What Pinterest is not is a marketing tool for self promotion, indeed point three of the asks you not to purely use Pinterest for self promotion. So in essence Pinterest is a social platform for sharing photos of things you love, from the to a or a . But its not for self promotion, so How can you use Pinterest to Market Your Brand?
The answer is indirect brand marketing strategy, sounds complicated but it isn’t really. The idea is that you can talk about your amazing products for 5% of the time, the remaining time you spend talking about and liking other peoples products, photos or designs – you become part of the Pinterest community, this of course the secret of Internet Marketing through Networking.
To help you along your way here are my top 5 tips for marketing your brand and products using Pinterest.
So there you have it 5 tips for using Pinterest to promote your brand online easily and without a fuss.
Now feel free to Pin this article (look a Pinterest logo for you, or my face, Pin My Face … I dare you 
Oh and follow me on Pinterest –
– UPDATE: NOPIN for Blocking Pinterest
Since writing this post Pinterest have given way to some companies concerned about copyright infringements. In the USA they already had the lovely DMCA and it worked well… but some companies wanted more. Some companies (for some reason I can’t yet figure out) wanted to be able to block users from Pinning their content.
If you are one of these companies you may want to reconsider your position, if you still want to block Pinterest simply use this code in your
If someone then tries to pin it will simply display a message saying that your site doesn’t allow pinning.
I must advise you against using this strategy, it will be a loss of traffic, a loss of audience that you wouldn’t other wise have and it’s a loss of promotion channel. If someone is abusing your content and claiming your work to be theirs, send a DMCA its easy to do.
If you are concerned about your latest work only being pinned you can use this code just on one page which is more advisable than a blanket cover.
One of the things I like to do, is to watch out for brands which are great. Not because they are well know, but rather because they have fun and make you smile.
One of the best brands for this is of course Virgin, each time virgin launch a new part of their company there is some whacky stunt – such as Richard Branson running around the streets naked. Anyway…
For a few week’s I’d been looking at airlines and the type of things they do. Most are boring, but some have fun – at Christmas they may have a Santa painted on the cone but that’s about it. So today when I stumbled across Kulula, I was excited. This is a brand which is engaging, fun and most of all makes you smile. With that in mind I want to share a few more pictures with you of their planes!
Above of course is their Movember plane – don’t forget to sponsor me this Movember.
Where are your pilots?
Black = Orange?
Attention Grabbing
Where did it go?
just in case the pilot forgets
That zips up this post
Thanks to Kulula.com for allowing use of these pictures.
Many Small businesses across the world are struggling, yes because of the economy but also because they don’t understand the importance of having a website to promote their business online. This post is about why a quality website is so important to a small business and why your business needs to get one today.
Here are my top 10 reasons why your small business needs a website.
Small Business Website - Client: sarahpetrie.co.uk
Remember in the 90′s we’d get a huge yellow book on our door step, it got thinner and thinner until today it’s … well tiny. The reason for this is the Yellow Pages, just like other telephone directories, are a thing of the past. If someone wants to find a “Piano Lessons in Hyde” they search for it online, they usually don’t even consider looking at a paper directory. Also due to the decline in size of the paper directory less and less are being delivered, so what was once in every household is no in relatively few.
If you are looking for a website for your small business, I offer solutions from as little as £95 (one off) or you can pay monthly for as little as £25! So you don’t need to spend those thousands on a small business website – none of my clients have so why should you? Take a look at some of my client work by visiting Andy Kinsey Designs today, if you like what you see why not get your website up and running by contacting me for a free quote.
Earlier this week I posted , today I want to take a look at the compelling case as to why your small business should blog.
Blogging is a very popular activity, past-time even, for many individuals and businesses. The rewards can be little or large, from families sharing photos and stories to businesses passing on vital information to potential customers or maybe as a source of near direct revenue. Either way there is a huge case for your small business to start blogging, or if you are blogging to continue blogging. (more…)
Over the past few weeks you will have read a lot about branding, and over the next few weeks this will continue. But this week I want to introduce some new services that we can offer at exclusive rates through our mother company, Andy Kinsey Designs.
Our Marketing Packages start from an amazing £350 – thats around £50 extra on top of a fairly simple site for a lot more!
Our packages can be customised to meet you needs more closely, but we think we’ve got most companies covered, if not buy an add-on, if you still can’t find what you want then make an enquiry and leave the extra bit as a message/comment for us – we’re always looking to expand and something you want may also be something someone else wants!
And here’s the exciting bit!
We know that we can fill your need, but we also know we can fill that of many other businesses.
It is through this belief we are today opening our referral scheme.
Our scheme is so easy, there is no sign-up required just ask those you refer to enter your email as how they found our services! – thats it, we will then contact you about your payment. – Also we have no minimum payment requirements, aka we won’t hold your money hostage like some referral companies.
What Will We Pay? Here’s the great news!
For spending between £0 & £250 – We pay 10%
For spending between £251 & 500 – We pay 7.5%
For spending between £501 & £1999 – We pay 5%
Over £2000 – We pay 2.5%
So tell your friends about our services and give them this link https://seoandy.net/marketing-packages – you won’t regret it
The idea of “brand positioning” may seem a little out of the box, but a brand is about the bigger picture not just an end result. Brand Positioning is the art form of creating or transforming a brand into something that can persuade and realistically demonstrate its relevance to a customer’s daily life to become his or her regular choice.
To position a brand you need to remember that the position of your brand is not created by a marketer or the individual brand itself, it is how others perceive your brand collectively with other similar brands. (For example when I think of Nike I think sports reliable and well made products … this leads me to think of Adidas too … they have a similar brand position so this is not unusual, another example would be Microsoft and Apple). Whilst reading this article I therefore ask you take the view of your target audience (the consumer), put yourself in their shoes repeatedly and each time you do change the person you empathise with … so maybe your targeting 18 to 14 years olds, think of it from a male and female point of view, think are they at uni or working, where they may work, try to consider all possible variables. Now having said a marketer doesn’t create the position they can have an overwhelming affect on the position of a brand in the consumers mind, and this is their job. A marketer should create the strategic and tactical suggestions to encourage the customer to accept a particular positioning in his or her mind.
To start the process of positioning your product, service or business as a whole you need to consider the following of your brand (get a pen and paper ready and write these down): key attributes or benefits that represent good value, whether it has a unique selling point (USP), how you can offer trust to your customer and also how your brand “appears” (eg if you are IBM you are wanting corporates to take you seriously so you ensure all of your products and services don’t look like a rough painting by a 2 year old … you ensure they are clean and professional with no fuss). It is these points you have written down that you now need to chop down to a maximum of 5 (ideally 3) great selling points and these will form the basis of your brand positioning (so keep these selling points in mind for everything to do with your business not just marketing in its literal form, but also indirect marketing via letter heads and business cards).
Now you’ve got the basics of what you want your brand to represent, it’s time for you to expand them into real selling points … not just a few words as some brands have like “clean” and “clear” … if you do have these words this is your chance to think about what they mean and how you convey them … again its a good idea to write these down – think of it as a little brainstorm in your notepad. Here are several characteristics of your brand you should consider whilst conveying your message and brand.
The more obvious the connection is between the brand and the prospect’s daily activities, the greater the chances are that the chances of selling the product or service you are offering. Relevance, or the connection that the prospect has to the brand identity, is how customers ultimately decide which brands to buy and which they will discard.
Consider: Is the identity of the brand too young or old for my target market? Are you targeting the right Audience? (by this I mean if your target audience is female and you are using lots of blue which is perceived as mail then your not targeting properly)
Many companies begin ensuing trust with a prospective customer by letting them know that what they offer is a genuine product or service (eg Coca-Cola on every bottle label from the company and the cans of course it tells you “it’s the real thing” and has the brand tagline “Always Coca-Cola” on coke or diet coke also microsoft sticker every machine with “windows genuine”).
Remember it is this little bit of detail (eg 100% genuine ruby) that gives you not only a little more trust from a prospective consumer but also adds a level of clarity and reassurance from your brand to the customer and may be the single point of differentiation between your offering and another businesses.
Consider: Is your service or product somehow “more” genuine than anyone else? Do you manufacture the product or service? Now consider how you can emphasise this element.
Whether you have the worlds best strategy for marketing your brand or not, it is worthless if you don’t have a clear, concise and focused message / slogan / mantra. It has to be appropriate, possibly be left of field (to make people think and ensure you stick in their mind) and finally it must sell your service. (one of the worlds best examples is “Gillette – The Best a Man Can Get” … clear and simple, also easy to remember.)
Consider: Is your message relevant to your product or service? Can your message be misunderstood or twisted to look bad? Could it evoke a feeling of “warmth” towards your brand? Could the message be made more accurate to reflect your product or service? Does your message convey the company in a good light? (and if not does it do you more harm than good?)
This is a dual aspect to your brand and is the Most Important factor in brand positioning. Firstly you give them a promise they can trust and believe in a promise of “100% FREE Delivery” or “100% satisfaction or your money back” or something similar. In doing this you give them something for nothing in essence, even though you make these promises if one person takes it up its more than likely the sales made from the promise will out weigh one persons want to get their money back, most people see it as a sign of trust and not take it up even if they don’t like it. (take Asda own brand goods, they all says satisfaction or your money back, how many people have taken them up on this … my guess is one person being funny, how many people have thought ooh money back …. i’ll have some of that … and bought it – i bet millions). The other edge to making a promise is to be promise your USP … or show it more… take sure for women … why does it sell to women (other than its perfumed fragrance of flowers?) because its message is “it’s pH balanced for a woman, and not a man.” what about L’Oreal …. people buy it because the slogan makes you believe your worth it … can you think what the slogan might be … “Because I’m worth it” – now think of how your message should be conveyed for your USP.
Consider: What promises you could make about your product, service or company? Don’t make them if you can’t follow through on them. Does your promise add value? Can your product or service promise more than anyone else in your market? if so tell them, or even better show them.
So as you can see there is a great bit of work needs doing to position your brand correctly and several factors to consider, a good marketer will help you with this aspect of brand building. But as I always say any marketing is about the skills of the marketer and the passion of the client/business in question … not a single one alone.
So… Is your brand positioned correctly, would you like to move your market position to a place where you are much more reputable and increase your sales as a result? if so then contact us today and we can help you.
It a well known fact to SEOs and content writers that link text (for internal links), otherwise known as the anchor text, is heavily used by Search Engines for ranking. The reason for this is that content writers know that to attract visitors to another page the anchor text must be meaningful. However, this anchor text cannot be used for the search results however, and therefore search engines use page titles for the search results “titles”.
The reason for this “titles” importance is that it has been shown in studies that users will look at the title of a search results in preference to the description of the page below.
The most commonly used title used by a search engine for its results pages is the Title Tag in the header of your code. However some sites or pages within sites simply do not have this tag, so this is a problem. Other problems include; the title is incomplete (e.g. missing a keyword descriptor), it is too long, it has no relevance to the page, every page of the site is the same.
So what makes the “perfect” Web Page Title?
1. Make it relevant – if your page is about your company then fine you should simply use your company name, but if a page is about a service give it the title of the service or if the page contains information on a key theme, use the key theme as your title. Clear and Concise communication of the page content is key. (oh and since you ask “about us” is not a useful title.)
Eg. This site uses the structure
2. Use correct Capitalisation – this is a commonly misunderstood idea. In simple terms you should use capitals in your titles to emphasise a certain word, for example most commonly the site brand name is capitalised. My advice is if you are not sure if you should use a capital or not, then don’t …putting capitals in the wrong place can often stop visitors from viewing your site from a search engine.
Imagine a search result : “ANDYKINSEY – SEARCH ENGINES” and another of :” AndyKinsey – Search Engines” which are you more likely to visit?
3. Each page should have a unique title – no two pages should share a title.
4. Home Pages are Special – Although you still must let the user know what is on your page you must also elevate your company / brand name, if only for web credibility. Doing this will also mean that at a glance in search results a person can find you through recognition.
5. Length of title – Although in practice you can have a title of unlimited length this is of no use. Search engines will generally use 66 characters (Google) in search results, but SERP’s will still recognise the rest of your title. So perhaps use the first 66 chars for describing your page and mention your brand name thereafter could work for you. But i should add this doesn’t work for all sites for SEO, it can be just as damaging as useful if used incorrectly.
6. Use of Keywords – if possible you should use a keyword or key theme in your title, however in describing what is on your page to make a title relevant you should already be doing this. My advice is not to keyword stuff your title… this will dilute any other SEO you perform.
7. Grabbing Attention - Ok so you’ve seen title that use brackets, colons, semi-colons, hyphens, asterisks and exclamation marks? Some people over do it eg.
((*(( Some Website Title – Brand Name ))*)) - This was a real web page title i have simply removed the words as to remove the identity.
My advice is keep it simple, Search Engine Optimisation – Webpage Titles – AK Designs
Do NOT use special characters, eg. the copyright symbol.
Do NOT use HTML tags such as the strong or emphasis tag.