A lot has been discussed in the technical press and media on the merits or otherwise of this law. These discussions have mainly focused on web design, implementation and web marketing but there has been little written to educate web users.

First contact

In reality most web users will first encounter the manifestation of this law when asked to accept cookies on visiting a website. Without guidance the web user will almost certainly say no!

This decision could affect their browsing experience and will certainly impact the website owner if their website is running any form of analytics, marketing or functionality requiring cookies to be accepted.

As a web user how does this affect me?

If you are asked to accept cookies what should you be aware of?

• What are cookies? Cookies are used by website owners to store various types of information on the machine you are using to browse their site. The UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) identifies 4 categories of cookies; ‘strictly necessary’, ‘performance’, ‘functionality’ and ‘targeting’.
• What information are cookies storing? This depends on the websites design and use. Generally cookies are used to store website parameters specific to your browsing session. For example, in an ecommerce website cookies store the products in your shopping basket. The most common cookies used are web analytics that anonymously track your navigation through the website.
• What are ‘strictly necessary’ cookies? These cookies are critical to the correct operation of the website. For example, an ecommerce website has ‘strictly necessary’ cookies to ensure your selected goods get put in, and stay in your shopping basket. Without these cookies the site just wouldn’t work. There is no opt-out for these cookies other than not using the website.
• What about ‘performance’, ‘functionality’ and ‘targeting‘ cookies? These cookies typically enable additional functionality for the user, manage web analytics or various types of marketing. Declining these may reduce your web browsing experience; however, because they are not ‘strictly necessary’ the basic website will work.
• How do I know what cookies are being used? Website owners are encouraged to disclose what cookies they use to allow you to make an informed decision. Some web browsers have an option to display cookies.
• What about my web browser, can I use that to control cookies? Functionality is included in a number of web browsers to decline cookies. This can be an all or nothing situation which, if you are on an ecommerce site may require you to adjust your browser settings to purchase goods. Additionally, web browsers can also be set to delete cookies on closing; this is how I have my browser set.

What cookies is this website using?

We have no ‘strictly necessary’ cookies. We have ‘functionality’ cookies that record you have accepted cookies and what colour scheme you are running and ‘performance’ cookies that manage the anonymous collection of analytical information about your navigation round this website (Google Analytics). Use this link to see our cookie policy.

Finally …

I ask you to accept cookies from our site so that we can use the analytics to help us improve the overall browsing experience for everyone. As a bonus this will also allow you to play with the colour scheme changer rather than sticking with the default scheme.

The content dilemma

Inevitably the conversation comes round to balancing the provision of sufficient information to your visitor without giving too much detail away to your competitors.

This is a tough balancing act so consider what you are ‘marketing’. This may well be your business knowledge, business capabilities, innovative products, competitive pricing, timely delivery or some other unique selling points (USPs).

Data, information and knowledge

So what should be written? With web content you are dealing with a hierarchy of three elements; ‘data’, ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’.

For example, if you sell TVs then:

• Data could be represented by the screen size, weight, display modes, price, dual tuners, etc.
• Information would be, for example, the TVs capability to record to external hard disk whilst watching another program because of the dual tuner.
• Knowledge is the experience to recommend one TV over another and why.

For a visitor coming to your website what are they looking for? Data, information, knowledge or a combination of all three?

What do you want to be recognised for?

What marketing USPs are you trying to project through your website to encourage contact? Is it domain knowledge to enhance your reputation and build authority or maybe it’s price and availability? In the end it’s a decision driven by your position in the marketplace, competitors offerings and most importantly how you want your visitors to see you.

Further references can be found on this blog post Website Content Authoring and on the Web Content Authoring Service page or you can contact us to find out more.

Well, having looked into the rise of Smartphone usage within and outside the UK and I am bound to say yes, and this is why …

Smartphones – the figures

According to a 2011 survey by Ofcom over a quarter of all adults (27%) and almost half of all teenagers (47%) use a Smartphone with the Apple iPhone the most popular brand (32% ownership for adults) followed by BlackBerry (the favoured device for teens at 37%).

Taking adult Smartphone ownership, 58% are male and 42% female. For the teens there is a reversal with girls at 52% and boys on 48%.

Interestingly, when it comes to being addicted to their Smartphone 37% adults and 60% of teens agreed they are.

Finally, it has been recently reported that in 2011 Smartphone sales exceeded PC sales.

What do we now know?

If your target market is adults then it seems that over a quarter of all adults use Smartphones with the vast majority (81%) never switching them off. Nearly a quarter admitted to using them during meal times.

This is why the time has now come to upgrade your website to give them a good browsing experience.

Most websites are not geared to the small screens on Smartphones so the user has a lot of zooming in and out, scrolling left, right, up and down just to read what you have to say.

Wouldn’t it be nicer if you made this a lot easier and gave them an enjoyable browsing experience? It would certainly encourage them to contact you.

How can we help?

Talk to us about upgrading your website for use on Smartphones … Smartphones are taking over!

The problem

The client became concerned that rental income was being eroded through increased booking commission charges and decreasing occupancy levels.

In 2011 the booking company appeared to be struggling to attract visitors. To overcome this they actively encouraged owners to reduce their prices to stimulate bookings. At the same time they continued with the same percentage commission payment, abet on a lower base price, and appeared to be offering owners approximately 15 weeks occupancy per year.

The solution

Faced with these factors the owner commissioned a holiday cottage website to be built that presented the cottage and the surrounding area in the best possible way.

It should:

• Allow guests to book online or make payments by cheque.
• Have the ability to manage booking and information enquiries.
• Display a calendar showing availability including provisional bookings.
• Display weekly pricing including special offers.
• Be owner self managed for both bookings and website content.

The holiday cottage website was published at the end of March 2011and the contract with the national booking company cancelled at the end of 2011.

The result

In 2011 the occupancy level increased to 34 weeks. The national booking company booked 15 weeks and the owners own marketing achieved an additional 19 weeks. The website investment paid for itself in less than 9 months.

More information?

For more information on holiday cottage letting websites and to discuss the costs and benefits please contact us.

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions then have you considered running your own holiday cottage letting website?

With your own holiday cottage website you can present your property, its facilities, the local amenities and visitor attractions in the area in a way that prospective guests will find attractive.

Does this sound a lot better than being one of a crowd, in competition with others in your area, and having to conform to a strict presentation style that doesn’t show off your property to best effect?

Why run your own Holiday Cottage Letting Website?

Prospective guests increasingly research the area and available properties using internet searches; just as you do when you look for holiday property lettings.

They are looking for its condition and facilities, the area, amenities, testimonials and how popular the property is. They will be delighted when they arrive on your website and find these questions answered.

Your holiday cottage website allows you to present this information together with your wealth of local knowledge in an attractive way supporting an informed decision to book.

The old adage is true; people buy from people and with your own holiday cottage website guests communicate directly with you rather than through a 3rd party. This allows you to add that personal touch, build rapport and answer any questions they may have either before or after booking.

Taking Payments

Guests like to pay in different ways so payment flexibility is key. Whilst on-line payment of deposit and balance are popular options some guests prefer to use cheques. Your holiday cottage letting website should support both options.

Taking credit/debit card payments doesn’t always require the trouble and expense of having an internet merchant account and paying the monthly fee that involves. It is quite possible to have an e-commerce payment solution that works on a small percentage of any payment made and supports all major credit and debit cards.
So, if your guest pays the deposit on a card and the balance by cheque the only charges you pay are on the card deposit.

In Summary – Your Holiday Cottage Booking Website

For your guests

• More information about your holiday cottage to make an informed decision.
• Property calendar showing availability and pricing.
• Direct contact with the owners for that personal touch.
• Book on-line to reserve their holiday dates.
• No additional, and sometimes compulsory, 3rd party costs covering holiday insurance and cancellation fees making your holiday let more expensive.
• Variety of payment options for deposit and balance.

For you

• Present your holiday cottage in the best possible way.
• No more commission payments to 3rd party booking agents.
• No 3rd party commission payments for weeks you sell.
• Ability to offer competitive pricing and generate higher rental returns.
• Complete control over pricing enabling ‘special offers’ to fill booking gaps.
• Availability calendar encourages early booking if weeks are being sold out.

Want to find out more?

For more information on holiday cottage letting websites please contact us.

What is SCOTSMAN?

SCOTSMAN seeks to address the well known fact that sometimes prospects come up with an idea that never gets to contract award for a variety of reasons. SCOTSMAN is a straightforward means of qualifying a sales lead through highlighting areas that need attention.

SCOTSMAN …

• Solution. Does the prospect like your solution? Do you have any references to back it up?
• Competition. Are others bidding for this work? Does the prospect express any supplier preference?
• Originality. Has the prospect recognised your uniqueness and strengths?
• Timescale. Has the prospect accepted your implementation timescale? Are their timescale realistic?
• Size. Will the job demand more resources than you can give? Is the job of strategic benefit?
• Money. Does the prospect’s budget and your costs match? Is the prospect’s budget realistic? Are you more expensive than your competition? Can you or your prospect afford it?
• Authority. Are you talking to a decision maker? Do they know a decision has to be made?
• Need. Is there a justification for the project and a decision timetable?

How is SCOTSMAN used?

Score against each SCOTSMAN element

• 0 – no more work required.
• 1 – you just don’t know enough.
• 2 – major area of concern requiring more work to resolve.

SCOTSMAN result

Sum the total score and:

• 0 – 5 Looking good, some work to complete.
• 6 – 10 Lots of work to do.
• 11 – 16 Review whether you should proceed.

To summarise

Qualification is an ongoing process not a single event. It is quite normal to re-qualify an opportunity many times as more information becomes available. You should not be afraid to qualify out an opportunity; in fact qualifying out and explaining why to your prospect can sometimes have a positive result and put you back in the frame!

If you would like more information on this sales qualification technique please contact us.

Communicating with your database

If you take the approach that everybody on your database will buy from you at some point then you could just simply blast them with emails on a regular basis until they submit. Of course others do this to you and eventually you start to resent them, deleting without reading or unsubscribing. You don’t want your database to do any of these things do you?

So the key thing is targeted communications based on their interest, where they are in the sales pipeline and importantly, how they are responding to your communications.

An example …

Mary saw you at a show in London and asked for some information about one of your products. So after a 3 minute conversation you know:

• Her name.
• Her email address.
• The types of shows she attends.
• Her geographic location.
• Her interests.
• The level of interest in one of your products.
• Her awareness of your competitors.

… and importantly, you have also started a business relationship with her. So the question is how to develop and nurture this relationship into a future sale?

Generating awareness and closing sales

Generalising there are two sales streams; the ‘slow lane’ where leads are gathering information and the ‘fast lane’ where leads are well disposed to purchase. How you separate these two groups out depends on a number of factors. However, it is important to recognise that both groups have differing information needs.

For the ‘slow lane’ your communication may well be less frequent with content biased towards authority and brand building whereas for the ‘fast lane’ communication is likely to be more frequent with content targeted towards reinforcing and closing sales.

To continue our example …

Where is Mary? Because you have started a conversation with Mary you know where she is in the sales pipeline and can target your communications appropriately either reinforcing your brand and authority or providing her with additional sales information as she requested.

CRM customer record is key

In either case it is key that the CRM record for Mary can record and track where she is in the sales pipeline for you to be able to accurately target your communications to meet her information needs.

For more information please see the article CRM in the Sales Process and details of our CRM Business Service.

Sales status

The sales process can be managed and monitored using a CRM system. The sales process drives the sales pipeline. All sales opportunities can be be categorised by sale value, timing and probability.

• Sale value. The estimated value of the sale based on current knowledge.
• Sale timing. The date the sale will be closed.
• Sale probability. The probability of winning the sale.

Sales pipeline management

Milestones and probability

By establishing a set of milestones and assigning a percentage probability of sale against each it is possible to factor and hence track the value of all sales over time. Thus your complete sales pipeline can be tracked and appropriate sales activity applied to close sales.

An example …

A sale opportunity is identified with an estimated value of £10,000 with delivery in 6 months time. As the opportunity has not been qualified you may give it a probability of 5%. The future value then of this sale is therefore £500.

However, 3 months on:

• You have made a proposal and the value of opportunity now £12,000.
• You are not in exclusive discussion with the customer.
• You think you may be the preferred supplier.

The sale probability is now 60% so the future value has risen to £7,200.

Finally, after 6 months hard work you win the deal, the contract value is £14,000 and you start next week!

Assignment of sales milestones and probability

With a range of businesses out there it’s not possible to give firm guidance on milestone vs. probability.

However, the best policy is to apply your business knowledge to identify a small set of milestones that are clear and unambiguous that relate to progress through the sales pipeline. Follow this with % probabilities at each milestone of closing the sale based on past business experience in winning orders.

How can we help?

We can work with you, using our proven ‘Business First’ approach, to identify and implement a sales pipeline tracking system for your business. To discuss further please contact us or see our CRM Business Service.

Using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system will enable you to develop a deeper relationship with your sales leads and customers through targeted communications, tracking actions and modifying your engagement approach based on results.

What CRM options are there?

There are a number of CRM solutions available to businesses at various price points either delivered as an internet based service or run locally. The optimal solution will be dependant on the complexity your customer base, mix of products and/or services and who will require access to your data.

Regardless of solution, flexibility and day-to-day ease of use are key to making your data work for you.

CRM basics?

There are three principle elements to building and using a CRM system:

• Capturing contact data. Designing a contact record to capture the right level and granularity of information to enable targeted correspondence with your customer base.
• Filtering data. Being able to ‘slice and dice’ your information to target individuals accurately with relevant communications. This is where a CRM system releases the potential of the information you have recorded.
• Recording results. Being able to track the results of your communications such that future communications can be based on this ongoing dialogue.

The CRM contact record – some basics

Every business has different information needs however, the basics of any CRM system is to be able to characterise individuals or companies with a series of attributes.

Mandatory data

Some attributes should be mandatory, for example the persons last name or their address post code. Wherever possible dropdown selections, tick boxes and the like should be used as this forces consistency in data entry which makes subsequent filtering much easier.

Consistency of data

Consistency of data is the biggest problem in any CRM system as inconsistent data makes data filtering very difficult (that well known expression of ‘rubbish in – rubbish out’).

For example, Hampshire and Hants are the same county but only the first 2 letters are the same. Filtering to get everyone in ‘Hampshire’ would miss out everyone in ‘Hants’ and visa versa.

Who owns your CRM data?

A strange question possibly, but very important. As your business grows many people will have access to your business data; both reading and entering information. Without somebody having overall data ‘ownership’ your CRM data quality will inevitably decrease which has a direct bearing on its value to your business. The data ‘owner’ has the responsibility of ensuring data quality through audits and staff training.

Finally, as your customer database is your business it makes business sense to guard who has access and the type of access they have to avoid both data loss to competitors and data breaches.

How can we help?

We can work with you, using our proven ‘Business First’ approach, to identify and implement a CRM system for your business. To discuss further please contact us.

To find out more about building customer relationships read our blog on Customer Relationship Management and see details of our CRM Business Service. For more information on email direct marketing see our blog on Email Direct Marketing.

The problem – how to manage your business contacts list?

As businesses we all collect contact details and other information about our customers and sales leads. The question is how to organise and use this information to benefit your business?

Understanding your business relationships

If you understand the business needs of your contacts you will be in a good position to create sales opportunities and build deeper business relationships.

Broadly, your business relationships fall into two categories:

1. Sales leads. Those people who have shown an interest in your business but have yet to purchase from you.
2. Customers. People who have purchased from you. You will be in a good position to develop this relationship further resulting in future sales opportunities.

Managing your business relationships

Communicate with your sales leads and customers in what ever format is most appropriate; email, text, letter, fax, telephone or even face-to-face! The key things are:

• Relevance. Make what you say relevant to their needs.
• Records results. These results will inform you how to continue an ongoing dialogue to grow the relationship.

How can we help?

We can work with you, using our proven ‘Business First’ approach, to identify how best to manage your business relationships. To discuss further please contact us or see our CRM Business Service.

For more information on email marketing see our blog on Email Direct Marketing.