International Online Marketing

Despite the snowy conditions and being woken by Leicestershire's earthquake in the night, I was pleased to get to the e business club's session on International Online Marketing early this morning in Nottingham.  The speaker, Mike Hunter from www.betterlanguages.com was excellent and made some really useful observations about search engine optimisation for websites targeting overseas markets and about translation procurement.  There was a real distinction discussed between UK based websites with foreign languages incorporated and those domains registered and hosted in the target country.

During the last seven years, working with client World Market Center Las Vegas, I have learnt an enormous amount about use of language, translation sourcing and best practice and copywriting for foreign markets and it's something I'd like to make more use of across different marketplaces.  I have always loved languages, was bilingual English and Welsh from the age of four and quickly adopted French and then Russian at senior school where I also studied Latin for a few years.  Unfortunately, my Russian has deteriorated the fastest because I simply don't use it enough and would probably have to start from scratch if I ever needed it for work.  Since then a smattering of Italian has seen me through a few wonderful holidays plus some really exciting work projects and my children have reminded me of what little German and Spanish I remember as they seek my advice on homework.  The world wide web has certainly made the world seem so much smaller - next language on the agenda for me is Portuguese with potential projects on the horizon in Brazil.

Remember remember

November's started with a bang, not just from fireworks!  I spent a few days in Paris and took the opportunity to see what's new over there in retail display and also to look at how they handle some of their high visitor volume museum layouts.  I was particularly interested in the Musee de l'armee which has a fantastic World War I and II exhibit complete with video clips, multi-lingual sound bites and things to touch and feel as well as to look at.  Some extremely moving exhibits which will remain with me for a long time; as we approach Remembrance Sunday I am certainly wearing my poppy.

Richard III

Well it's been an interesting Friday, starting with a seminar on what's new in mobile at 7.30 this morning in Nottingham, then filming for a piece which will be on air on East Midlands Today tonight talking about the benefits that could be brought to tourism in Leicester if 'the bones' really do turn out to be those of Richard III.  That was closely followed by an interview with Ben Jackson on BBC Radio Leicester for his drivetime show tonight on the same subject.  So now back in the office wading through emails!

I was put on the spot about how much a Richard III visitor centre could bring in revenue to Leicester - I'm sure far more brilliant financial minds than mine will be modelling just that, all I could do really was look at what another city-based historical visitor centre might turn over.  Somewhere like the Jorvik Centre in York for example, which has seen more than 16 million visitors in the 28 years since it opened might be able to help with some real life stats and of course there are all the add-ons like benefits to local hotels, restaurants and shops.  This is where joined up marketing thinking will be really important, partnerships between Leicester businesses could double or triple the revenue made on pure ticket sales alone - I would love to see a visitors centre and then go to a performance of Richard III at Curve.  Fingers crossed the bones do indeed turn out to be those of the last Plantagenet King.

A motivating September

It's been a great September with lots of new business enquiries, a visit to 100% Design and Design Junction, a conference about corporate communications in Brazil, a fantastic production of Certified at Leicester's Curve theatre and finally a presentation of my certificate of appointment as a Fellow of the CIPR.  Unlike the doom and gloom that seems to haunt my every morning when the Today programme comes on with the alarm clock, my experience is that clients have returned from their summer breaks re-invigorated and determined to do their utmost to create business wherever they can.  Maybe they're partly motivated by the amazing summer of sport during the Olympics and Paralympics.  I for one echo that determination, let's hope that motivation continues for the rest of the Autumn.

Leicester back on the world map again!

I can't help feeling excited about the recent archaeological discoveries in Leicester.  To find an ancient church underneath a bland, grey, city council car park is exciting enough, but yesterday's announcement of a find of remains which quite possibly could be those of King Richard III has got me reaching for my history books and re-reading about that part of British history.  I was particularly pleased to receive this morning's email from www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk  including a brilliant interview with Richard Buckley from the University of Leicester describing the find.  So pleased, I thought I'd share it - have a look at this!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRY0CLRCjM8

Google updates

I've spent lots of time in the last month ensuring that I'm up to date with all of google's latest algorithm changes and then working out what they mean for my clients.  Perhaps the most dramatic for many websites is the penalisation for duplicate copy - if, for example, you have a news section on your website which contains press release content and that press release has gone out to lots of publications who then choose to publish it in its entirety on theirs, then you risk significant search penalties. 

So, that's me very busy for the next four weeks ensuring that my clients' sites don't contain duplicate content - hey ho!

Summertime

Our office here overlooking the Wreake Valley, with its pretty river meandering through the valley is usually glorious at this time of year, but we've seen so little sunshine so far it doesn't really feel like June and the footpaths are still muddy.  I'm thrilled to report that Hoby Open Gardens weekend made over £5,700 for All Saints Church in Hoby, despite the downpours last Saturday.  So many of my clients have summer social activities planned many of which are now subject to a plan B. 

Responding to the British weather should stand us in good stead for responding to changes in the business environment.  'When the going gets tough, the tough get going' and we're certainly having to help our clients work harder and smarter on customer development and retention.

We're doing lots more email and social media campaigns across many different sectors as clients are keen to maintain conversations with their customers even when business is quiet.  No PR campaign is now complete without thinking about social media and how that could impact and certainly no crisis PR policy can afford not to make the most of social media - as Jimmy Carr demonstrated last week!