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Why Google+ Means the World to Your Business

“We’re extremely happy with our progress so far, and one of our main goals is to transform the overall Google experience and make all of the services people already love faster, more relevant, and more reliable” - Google

It’s safe to say that Google owns the internet. Google accounts for 90% of online traffic and the second largest search engine is YouTube which, we all know, is owned by Google! With many layers to its empire including Google Docs, Google Alerts, gMail, Picasa and Google Shopping to name a select few, Google was always missing that one key element, a social layer.

With bad reviews, an archaic platform and many complaining users, Google’s social layer; Google+ didn’t have the best of starts. What was supposed to be the next best thing since Facebook (in Google’s eyes) clearly wasn’t performing and something had to change.

Do you remember Google Buzz or Google Wave? Probably not. Google+ was Google’s third time lucky when attempting to harness the power of Social. As it stands, Google+ is an extremely important platform for those who want to market their business online and here are a few reasons why;

  • SEO Benefits – With Google owning 90% of online traffic, you should reap the benefits Google+ can offer your business when it comes to search engine optimisation. Make sure your Google+ Business Page includes all of your keywords and is constantly updated with fresh and relevant content.

  • Google Hangouts – Google offers something unique in their social layer where you can actually hold a face to face meeting with a group of people, inside Google+ completely free of charge.

  • Google Circles – The ability to categorise those you are connected with via Circles is a great way to share the right information with the right people. Google Circles is a great way to target your sharing.

Google+ is more active than you are probably aware of. With over 260M active users, 60% of which log in everyday, Google+ is one of the fastest growing social networks ever boasting over 500M Google+ “enabled” users. Google+ also acts as an influencer, especially when it comes to shares of +1’s. Google sees this as a social recommendation and will rank you in search according to this.

Google+ is the same as Facebook and Twitter in the sense that it acts in real time but with an extra edge. Any status update on Google+ is immediately indexed and pushed into Google Search. When posting in Google+, make sure you use keywords and use “” to make sure they are being picked up by Google as being key search terms for your business.

Google+ isn’t going anywhere and I have a feeling it will become an influential networks inside of the social media space. From being able to create a community and using keyword rich content, linking straight back to your site, Google+ is not only a social advantage to a business selling online, its a Search advantage too.

Social Commerce – The Future of Connecting with your Online Consumer

In an ideal world for most people, the way we buy and sell as a business or consumer, would never change. I, however am not most people and believe that change is a great opportunity to learn more about the technology world and improve the way our businesses function. Two words that have been floating around the web for some time now have a purpose and meaning. Social Commerce is here, and it won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Mark Zuckerberg was right when he said “If I had to guess, Social Commerce is next to blow up” back in 2011. Social Commerce is the combination of social media and digital technology to sell both products and services online.

Social Commerce will be a driving force for online sales because of the art of storytelling. What better way to connect with an online customer than giving them a reason to connect with YOUR business? Every business has a story and a personality trait which is social media worthy.  If you can connect with your customers on a personal level through story telling on social media, you will build your clientele which in essence will translate into a social commerce transaction.

There are 1 billion people on Facebook with around 75% of those users “liking” a brand’s Facebook page. The Facebook users that like a fan page are ultimately saying they will buy from that business IF that company engages with them in the right way. Did you know that a Facebook share (when someone see’s a post on your Facebook fan page, “shares” it with their community who then follows the link back to your page, visits your website and purchases from you) is worth £2.60? Even more surprisingly, Twitter can generate a massive £21.04 in sales through a share. Think Social Media is a waste of time? Think again.

When I hold a keynote seminar, I always ask the same question. When you are inside Facebook and see one of their advertisements down the side of the page, do YOU firstly click on it, and THEN purchase that product? 99% of the time, no more than three hands are raised out of around 50-60 people. Why? Because we no longer trust advertising more than we do peer to peer recommendations. Andrew Mason, Groupon founder said the following; “Middle-class people sit around, trying to think of how to spend money.  One of the most powerful ways to figure that out is looking at what your friends are buying – these are the people you trust”. This, I definitely agree with.

It has been estimated that by 2015, Social Commerce sales will reach around $30 billion a year with 50% of online revenue coming from social media. We are seeing well known brands like Mercedes selling 666 cars in the space of 8 hours with their “Three Point Twitter” campaign and Adidas selling around £2,500 worth of products via in-stream Facebook and Twitter. Brands are making magic and it’s not just a myth anymore, there is a lot of money to be made if you utilise the tools available to combine social media and digital commerce.

The best way to sell on social media is to in fact, not sell at all. For your followers to really trust your business, you need to take a step back and realise why you are even a part of a social network. The intent is not always a purchase, it is to share great content and to engage with a community. Once you have built this foundation, you won’t need to force your products or services onto those who are connected to you, they will naturally, become brand advocates.

Social Commerce is here to stay and it’s time for you to look at the future of connecting with your online consumer.

U.K. To Get Its Own Version of Small Business Saturday

Small business owners; listen up! This year, the U.K. will be getting Small Business Saturday this year! In the United States alone, their version of this highly popular event say over $5 billion in sales for small businesses.

The Shadow Business Secretary Chukka Umunna spoke to The Independent regarding Small Business Saturday;

“The UK version will be launched against the backdrop of a traumatic time for many retailers in town centers  where an average of one in seven shops is empty after a series of failures over the past five years.” Mr Umunna said: “I want to make Small Business Saturday a reality in Britain to actively champion, celebrate and showcase small, independent businesses on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.”

My Umunna has been a huge supporter of this event that will take place on the 7th December 2013. Small business retailers in the U.K., like many in the U.S. have struggled during the tough economic time. This is the time to really celebrate the achievement many small businesses have managed despite all odds.

This event in the U.K. is being backed by several influential groups including the Chambers of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses, British Independent Retailers Association, The Association of Convenience Stores, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association, to name a few.

We should expect to see other well known small business advocates celebrating the event. Startup Britain and Startup Loans are two leading organisations who will be marketing this great event to their audience.

The U.S. version of Small Business Saturday is held on the Saturday after Black Friday. The idea was first formed in 2010 by American Express who picked up on the growing trend that Small Businesses were succeeding in such harsh times. They then decided to promote it around the holiday season and now has hundreds of supporters including cities, states, chambers of commerce, small business advocacy groups, high profile public officials and large brands like American Express, FedEx and The Small Business Administration (SBA)..

The U.S. have managed to successfully tap into Social Media to promote the event. Not only has Small Business Saturday become a major movement, social media activity is constantly active throughout the year. With it’s own website (www.shopsmall.com), Twitter handle and Hashtag (@Shopmall / #Shopsmall) Small Business Saturday has proved its ability to impact Twitter but even more so on Facebook with over 3 million likes on it’s Facebook Page.

I am a huge advocate of Small Businesses as I am an owner of one myself so I will definitely be supporting this cause, even if it is on both my Sister’s birthdays! Voted as one of the UK’s top 100 Startup’s by Startups.co.uk, keep an eye out for Gloople’s name around the 7th December!

What will you be doing to support Small Business Saturday?

The Future of Mobile Commerce


The number of mobile purchases are growing rapidly and more online and offline retailers are changing their business strategy to incorporate mCommerce. Mobile Commerce should not be seen as just another sales channel; it is a way to improve product experience and brand presence. So, what can we expect to see in the future?

To give you an example of how quickly mobile commerce is growing, Paypal had to update their 2012 mobile estimates three times, going from £3.3 to £5.3 then finishing on £6.6 Billion. They also finished on a yearly mobile increase of 150%.

Paypal isn’t the only company showing significant mobile improvements. Amazon and eBay have reported that around 20% of their sales are coming from smartphones or tablets.

We see, on a daily basis how attached people are to their mobile phones. When I travel to work on the underground, around 60% of the people in my carriage are using their smartphone and it would be safe to say that nearly every single person would not travel without their mobile. We, as a country are attached to our phone for personal reasons but now, we like to shop on them too.

The line between the real world in which we live in and the online world is very thin indeed. The growth of interactive content and augmented reality is down to the hype of the online world.

When looking at the mobile customer journey, we will see a lot of businesses developing a separate strategy including the use of QR Codes and Location Based Marketing.

There has been a lot of research taking place on mobile commerce with a strong suggestion that the statistics are going to keep rising, in favour of mCommerce. 80% of smartphone owners use their devices to shop with Amazon being the most popular. 68% (male) and 58% (female) are likely to make a purchase based on mobile ads and by 2016, mobile influence for retailers will increase to £460 billion.

Unfortunately, it has been reported that 86% of sites on the web are not mobile and have received negative feedback on the mobile experience. With mobile online time growing 14x faster than desktop time, you need to optimise your website so that your customers can purchase smoothly when using their smartphone or tablet. A great way to do this is to build your website responsive.

Over the past year, Responsive design has become a hot topic in the web design community. A Responsive design allows you to view a website on your smartphone or tablet/iPad as you would on your desktop. Something that was once so bespoke that only one man could build it, has now gone global. Not only is it being used by millions of websites all over the world, you can now use it as a theme inside of WordPress. Speak to your web designer and optimise your site so that your users can have a smooth journey when purchasing on mobile.

There was an 80% growth in 2011, 105% growth in 2012 and the mCommerce market is expected to generate between £780 million to £665 billion in revenue, worldwide by 2014.

Are you ready for mCommerce to evolve?

Why Email Marketing Increases Your Sales

Email Marketing can be overlooked by a lot of companies as a way of increasing sales. As a business owner, I see the importance of sending that perfect email with a call to action and wanted to share with you how important it really is to personalise your emails when talking to your customers.

Studies have shown that an astounding 84% of retailers have not sent a single email to their database. If you have products or services to sell, email marketing should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy.

Why does sending email’s matter?

Having a weekly or monthly newsletter strategy has shown to increase online sales by at least 30%. If you are a part of the 84% of businesses not using email marketing, you’re missing out on increasing your revenue.

A recent study conducted by Direct Marketing Association showed that on average, businesses were generating £26 in return on every pound spent on email marketing! This is nearly double the return on mobile campaigns and SEO/PPC campaigns.

What kind of emails should I be sending?

When you look at the kind of email you are sending it needs to be:

  • Customised – By this I mean something you or one of your colleagues have spent time writing.
  • Personal – Most email marketing companies will give you the option to include the person’s first name based on how you have entered their details in the email lists you create. This is a great way to get your customers attention.
  • Interesting Content – To make sure your customers open the email and read it, you need to share content they will want to read.

The emails you send must be relevant to your customer. It has been reported that only 14% of companies collect statistics and demographic data about their customers. To help with your data collection, add a few extra fields on your email signup sheet such as gender and age.

Email Marketing Tips
Here are a few final tips I wanted to share with you on Email Marketing;

1. Make sure your email actually reaches your customers inbox. You will need to ask your list to add the email marketing tool to their inbox so that it doesn’t end up in their junk folder.
2. Use professional templates that are mobile friends with a call to action focused on your products.
3. Focus on your subject line. Keep it short, personalised and to the point. If you don’t chose the right subject line, your email won’t get opened.
4. Timing is everything. Don’t just send the email once you have finished writing it. You need to make sure you send yourself a test email to make sure all the links work and the text is the same size.

With the two top reasons for not having an email newsletter being “too busy” and “not enough time” you need to overcome these two thing and focus on having a great email marketing campaign for your business.