We sipped champagne, enjoyed the canapes, wandered round the rooms and visited some of the 97 apartments at the grand opening of Moorlands Lodge, a brand new, purpose-built care home in Hindhead.

Other guests included Baroness Virginia Bottomley, who said: "Signature Moorlands Lodge provides a magnificent standard of care and support alongside independence and dignity. This is a welcome addition to Surrey and Hampshire, where an increasingly ageing population rightly requires a higher standard of service. I am sure Signature Moorlands Lodge will be a tremendous success and wish them all well."

We, too, wish Moorlands well. From a design perspective, Moorlands is very nice. Like a smart hotel.

The rooms in the apartments are not square boxes, so there is a sense of originality, a quirkiness even. The common areas (sitting rooms etc) are full of artefacts from the 50s and 60s to make residents feel at home.

The dining room looks luxurious and we noted a separate dining space for entertaining family and friends to celebrate an anniversary.

Thoughts led inevitably to retirement (some way off): What type of accommodation? Where to live?

Aesthetically, my personal preference is for a modernized Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian building to retire to. While there was lots of space at Moorlands, the really high ceilings, big rooms and tall windows of traditional buildings appeal from a design point of view.

A medium-sized town with a university, a theatre and a cinema also appeals. The home needs to be within easy driving distance of children and grandchildren. Oxford, Bath, and Chichester are on the list.

Anyway, who retires these days if they keep their health and their marbles? A care home is not where the heart is, however hard it tries and you won't find better carers or facilities than Moorlands.

For more information about Moorlands, visit: www.signature-care-homes.co.uk.

Gone are the days when the only option for marketers was promoting products and services using TV adverts and print media. Now, companies can no longer rely purely on these methods. Since the arrival of the Internet in the early 1990s, digital marketing has become more and more influential.  

image via seo.com

Brian Halligan, CEO of Hubspot, has made a gloomy prediction that “traditional marketing is going to get obliterated in the next 10 years.”
 
Traditional: Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing focuses on one-way communications and broadcasting. Customers are sought out via print, television, radio, banners, direct mail and cold calls. The key is interrupting people, and alerting them to products and services in very obvious ways; they don’t have a choice whether they view it or not.
Even if consumers turn away from an ad on TV or a billboard or in the press, a subliminal message may have stuck. The same thing happens when you can't get an irritating but catchy tune out of your head.  High premiums are paid to have adverts displayed in prominent places.

However,
Brian Halligan says, “Human beings are sick and tired of being marketed to.”
Well, he would say that, as Hubspot's business model reflects the trend for inbound marketing. The company enjoyed an 81% rise in revenue from 2010-11 to $29 million; and their clients collectively generated 2.4 billion page views.
Hubspot specializes in helping companies to market through inbound methods.
 
The New: Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing relies on people’s interest. Customers find you, whether via a search engine results page (SERP), social media referrals, etc. It is only natural for users to be more interested if they have chosen to engage.

It revolves around social interaction and digital communications – building relationships between client and company. It seeks to educate and entertain potential customers with interesting content, combined with a strong social media presence. Interactions can happen through all forms of social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr, Pinterest (the list goes on).

The reach of this kind of content can grow rapidly if it goes viral. Viral marketing depends on a high share-rate from person to person – this can be via pre-existing social media sites, or by word of mouth.  If many recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth becomes exponential and reaches many people in a short amount of time. When linked to other websites, SERP visibility is improved.

Why the change?
People now interact with each other worldwide via social media, sharing their views and ideas. So it is vital that companies engage too, with personality and presence, demonstrating that they are au fait with the latest trends.

To give an idea of the scale of social media – every 13th person in the world is believed to have an active Facebook account, and Twitter has over 500million profiles.
As everyone takes more control of what they see and receive, outbound marketing becomes less appealing. And, with growing competition, companies must take every opportunity to market themselves.
 
Facts & Figures (via Mashable)
-       84% of 24-35 year-olds have left a site due to invasive and irrelevant advertising.

-      The percentage on which people act on outbound marketing is believed to be between 1-2%.

-       86% of people skip television adverts.

-      Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than outbound.

-      42% of businesses have acquired a customer through Twitter.

-       2/3 of marketers say their company blog is “critical” or “important” for their business.

-       The average budget spent on social media and company blogs has almost doubled in the last two years.

Summary
The problems with inbound marketing are said to be that it is harder to keep tabs on, and that companies are often wrongly preoccupied with followers or views. It is important to remember that although marketing methods might be changing and adapting, the focus should still be on what works and ROI (Return On Investment). And in some sectors, traditional marketing in print has value and complete relevance. For example, Navigate's clients in the education sector need a printed annual prospectus, and other literature such as an annual report, leaflets and exam results.

Prospectus for Everest Community Academy, created by Navigate

So there is still room for old and new marketing methods to work separately and together. Companies must choose and follow marketing that works.

Encyclopaedia Britannica will no longer be published in book form. First published in Edinburgh in 1768, this year would be its 244^th birthday.

Although this was in the news last week, in fact it hasn’t been printed since 2010, and the final 8,000 copies need to be sold. The decline in sales started in 1990 – at which point they sold 120,000 32-volume sets. However, in the early ‘90s many began relying on the Internet for information, and by 1996 they sold just 40,000.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica’s spokesperson, sales of DVD editions are booming. It is also available online and as an app, but is competing with Wikipedia – for up-to-the-minute ‘facts’ and information.

But, there are two big problems with online information platforms. Firstly, anyone can submit information to Wikipedia. Although checks are made they may not be as stringent as the editing of a book, partly due to the unmanageable amount of updates. Wikipedia statistics show that 3 edits are made per second.

Secondly, online encyclopaedias generally only allow for wandering within one topic – if you research a band, links might be shown to their discography, or the history of each specific member. But, printed editions allow readers to engage and browse more varied subjects.

Whether you are using a printed reference book or an online version, always check the facts. Question and research the impartiality of Wikipedia; or the accuracy and currency of a book such as Encyclopaedia Britannica.

At 8am tomorrow morning, 16^th March, the newest version of the iPad  will officially go on sale.

Alongside all the excitement, concerns have been expressed that Apple won’t be able to sustain the sales surge it has enjoyed in the last few years. Are these worries really necessary? 

Retailing at the same price as its predecessor, this is the most expensive iPad for Apple to manufacture to date, due to its ‘retina display’ and bumper-sized battery (among other things). This means that Apple receive the lowest margin on any iPad - 51%. With the price of the iPad 2 dropping, the margin for that also changes from 56% to 53%.

iPads account for 33% of Apple revenue – launched two years ago, they are now better selling than the Mac and iPod, only surpassed by iPhones.  

But who will buy this iPad? Overall, 55 million iPad tablets have been sold - 15.4 million in the last three months of 2011. So, although many people do have one, many more don’t, and they are the target for Apple. Within the first few weeks of launch, a large percentage of current iPad owners are expected to upgrade, especially people with the first iPad. 

With a huge online buzz, and the delivery date for pre-orders being pushed back several times, the suggestion is that the iPad has pre-sold very well. 

So, concerns may be unfounded. This is Apple we are talking about – their market value is in excess of £317 billion. Despite thoughts that the death of Steve Jobs would affect sales, they have continued to boom and stock prices boosted by 50%.

Counting a 5mp camera, voice recognition and a screen sharper than anything available to the public within its features, we’re sure this iPad will be a success.

In fact, we at Navigate have the new iPad on pre-order!

Marketing campaigns by price comparison websites tend to be arresting and memorable – whether we enjoy them or not. They extend beyond traditional television, internet and print adverts, and become 3D characters, invading our daily lives and conversation. So, the competition is on for each company to make its mark.

But do these adverts work?

The largest comparison site, MoneySupermarket, owe their recent boost in sales to a podgy guy with a bad haircut and an inflatable crocodile. After dropping comedian Omid Djalili in 2011, their latest campaign ‘You’re so MoneySupermarket’ has already seen a 15% increase in earnings this year, having spent £77.5 million on marketing last year.

Despite being voted the ‘Most Irritating Advert’ in both 2009 and 2010, Gio Compario is still singing the praises of Go Compare. This multi-million pound campaign has been very successful.  Brand awareness of the site is up 450%, as well as significantly increasing quote volumes.

Gio and his twizzly ‘tache have become more than a marketing machine – with his own blog, Twitter page, Facebook, and ‘Gio-isms.’ As Nick Hall, Head of Marketing at Go Compare, says, "He engages with consumers on other levels and talks about things in his world."

Undoubtedly the most engaging campaign was the arrival of meerkat Aleksandr Orlov in January 2009. 12 adverts later, and CompareTheMarket is now ranked in the top 4 most visited insurance websites in the UK, up from 16^th in 2008, and overall sales have more than doubled year on year since the launch of the ‘meerkat campaign.’

People of all ages have built affection with the brand, whether through the microsite, the book (which had more pre-orders than Tony Blair’s autobiography), Aleksandr’s Twitter feed, family history, or free meerkat cuddly toys.

There have been some less successful attempts to recreate the meerkat idea – Confused.com introduced Confucius to act as a brand mascot, but he only stuck around for a year. Admitting that they had lost their lead in the market, Confused.com created ‘Cara’ – the all-singing, all-dancing cartoon. The Marketing Director has claimed ‘Cara’ has been much more successful – and they have gained 2 million customers

It seems that the huge investments into marketing are paying off for these comparison super-brands, raking in money, and saturating conversations. It’s clear that up-to-the-minute marketing and promotion, via social media, for example, isn’t enough on its own. Companies still need to target customers through traditional methods, as well as taking care how they market and they must also ensure the webpage lives up to the adverts.Simples.

My specialist role as Navigate’s Director of Communications means caring for the content and tone of customers’ communications. Whether in print or online, the content and the design have to work well together to deliver the desired effect. 

Content is the latest buzzword for copywriting. It is all about the creating inspirational copy to promote each individual client’s service or product. In terms of content, or copy, less is often more – the combination of a few strong words and a striking design has the most impact.Having worked for 10 years on the staff of The Times (with three years as Sports Editor), I moved out of journalism, where the aim was to question and challenge. In those days the best news journalists did not take sides – that was left to columnists and feature writers – but tried to produce a balanced report of the facts.

Of course that might mean that the facts were slanted to suit the politics andethos of the newspaper or magazine. Questioning and challenging tend to produce negativity, perceived as the prevailing tone of the newspaper industry.

Copywriting skills are more positive and, if you like, promotional. Mine were developedworking in the 90s for clients, and publishing their customer magazines. Clients included large businesses such as Eastern Electricity, Rolls-Royce Motors, Yardley of London, and Knight Frank.

Working for a variety of customers requires a flexible and focused approach to content. But the key considerations are: to keep in mind the clients and their target markets, and to write relevant material for both.

Ideally content tells stories, and in journalism a ‘story’ has traditionally meant a news item or feature article. The story engages and informs readers, encouraging them to take action and make the appropriate connection. Content can be a door-opener, a call to action, or it  can sew a seed in the readers’ minds. Good content is fundamental to the marketing effort.

Simple, direct and clear English are the watchwords of Navigate Design. English is a highly flexible language which keeps evolving. Some people get hung up on what they perceive as ‘correct’ English, but good sense and clarity are my main concerns. We check, check and check again – especially the spelling. Re-read the content and get other people to read it. 

Three tips

1. Avoid long words, sentences and paragraphs. Modern idioms may be acceptable, but jargon and clichés rarely are.

2. Honesty is the best policy.

3. Trust. Communicate with your copywriters and designers by all means and at all times. They want only the best for you and your marketing messages, so they need clients’ feedback. But there comes a time when it is best to let go.

When content is clear, it will reach the hearts and minds of its target audience.

Mixed messages abound about the current state of the UK economy and the prospects for business this year. In March, an off-the-record briefing to business by the Bank of England was broadly optimistic, but hinted at a potentially difficult early summer period in Q2.

 Events in Greece and the Eurozone have temporarily diverted attention from the problems of the UK economy. However, back in January, the respected Red Flag Alert reported that most business sectors faced an "increase in distress" in Q4 of 2011. The most distressed were:

o        ‪Professional Services, 61%‬

o        ‪Travel & Tourism, 56%‬

o        ‪Property Services, 30%‬

Red Flag Alert did suggest that the UK had "hit rock bottom", with a 24% increase in their distress index. Even the affluent South East suffered a 33% in critical distress in the last quarter. 

 Published quarterly by Begbie Traynor, leading recovery and insolvency specialists, the latest Red Alert forecast that there was worse to come. In 2012,  SMEs would face increasing pressure, and high street retailers would be beset with price cutting price-cutting by online rivals such as Amazon. 

 Red Alert predicted that travel and tourism would suffer from an "Olympic 'displacement' effect", especially companies which rely on domestic tourism. West End theatres have reported a 95% fall in bookings for the period of the Olympics in July and August. "We believe there will be at least one failure of a household name travel company during the next quarter," the report predicts.

 Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor Group, said: “Trends evident in the Red Flag Alert demonstrate that we are likely to be approaching a crucial period for businesses large and small. Escalating levels of distress indicate we may be  getting close to the bottom of the economic cycle, where so-called ‘zombie” businesses, which are inherently insolvent, but have benefited from extensive support measures such as HMRC’s ‘Time to Pay’ scheme, eventually fail."

 The only sectors which bucked the trend included print & packaging. This, in the past, has proved an early indicator of the end of recessions. But, in these unfamiliar times, this could be optimistic. The other sectors with positive figures are sport & recreation, food, drugs, and wholesaling. 

 One big lesson from all this uncertainty is that this is a great time to promote your goods and services, if you plan your strategy, timing and marketing channels carefully. Those businesses and organisations which have a clear strategy and which focus on a connected marketing and sales function are likely to make the fastest progress out of this deep downturn. Navigate itself is focusing on key sectors, using its special skills and experience in design, web development, content and copywriting and PR.  

Contact Nick Keith,

nick.keith@navigate-design.com 

www.navigate-design.com

Content marketing is a buzzword for marketers. What does it involve? While marketing involves promoting products and services, content provides advice and information which seems independent of the sales message.

Content companies have sprung up all over the place, often employing journalists to write copy, specifically for Content Marketing, which is different from advertising copy or Press Releases.

Traditionally, journalists and PR copywriters have a different training and ethos, each is valid in its own sphere. Their distinctive skills have been blurred by the internet and by the need on websites for keywords for SEO purposes.

The work of PR and copywriting is to promote (or protect) a brand, a company or a person by getting stories in the media. Many journalists move into PR, but they have to develop a customer-conscious attitude. 

A much decried and mistrusted skill, journalism represented well-researched, balanced and impartial report for a newspaper, magazine, or newscast. Before the web, the best journalists kept their personal views out of their reporting, allowing the power of their words to tell the story and leaving the readers or viewers to make up their own minds. Opinion was left to the columnists, feature writers and leaders.

Today the immediacy of communications and the demands of readers/editors get in the way of balanced, well researched and impartial reporting. Perhaps forever. Now people rely more and more on Twitter, Facebook and social media to take them straight to the latest story as it breaks. We have become fixated on 'stories' rather than news. 

When I started work on The Times, news was defined as 'what happened yesterday' (or at best in the very early hours of the morning of publication). We were taught to question and remain suspicious of everything, especially if material was supplied by the government or by PRs. 

A good PR builds relationships with key media and ensures that the right messages about their clients get in the media. Max Clifford, a legendary English PR, says that 90% of his work now involves protecting clients from bad publicity.

A good journalist will research and question everything, but that has become difficult. Today, news is what is happening right now. Yesterday has gone into the vaults of the archive.

Advertising and PR can be powerful means of promotion. Content marketing is used to support PR and marketing, as journalists are used to provide a more balanced and 'independent' approach to PR and advertising. 

The good news for Navigate customers is that they can benefit from the best of all worlds – PR, copywriting, and content marketing. Navigate audits customers' needs, their message and their target audience, and helps them generate their material through the most effective media. 

For an audit of your content marketing, copy, or PR, Contact me, Nick Keith, nick.keith@navigate-design.com, 01730 235666

By Natalie Todd

On 1 March, Google implemented their new privacy policy, allowing them to track users across all their products and platforms.

A poll of more than 2,000 people by Google, in conjunction with YouGov, suggests that 47% of UK Google users are not aware of the changes. And, according to Big Brother Watch, only 12% have read the new agreement.

With loads of thoughts, opinions, technology jargon and lengthy policies floating around, we have highlighted the key things you need to know.

What are the changes?

Google’s business model has always relied on collecting browsing information from users, leading to selling ads targeted on individual behaviour.

The new privacy agreement means that activity on all of Google’s sites will be linked. Rather than separating user information between its 60+ services, Google will now pool all of that information, providing them with a more detailed profile of your interests. This means that data and web history, gathered when a user is logged in to a Google account, can be shared across all of their websites.

In their blog post announcing changes in January, Google said:

“We can make search better — figuring out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink.”

How does this affect you?

Undoubtedly, these changes have caused a stir. The big concern is that there will be less privacy for users of the multitude of products that Google owns, especially as no-one is able to opt out of these changes.

You need to know that Google aren’t accessing any more data than they were before. And, if you aren’t logged in to a Google service, nothing can be attributed to you.

The company have suggested that these changes are also in aid of simplifying privacy settings and making the array of policies easier to understand.  In theory, with more information, Google will be able to provide a better user service – with increased accuracy in search results, more interesting and tailored advertisements, and features that work across multiple sites.

An example of how this could work: if you type ‘recipes’ into Google Search, the next time you go onto YouTube, cookery videos might be suggested to you. Or if you watch a video by a certain music artist, tickets for a tour might be advertised to you on your Gmail account.

Some people have argued that Google is taking away what they feel is the very essence of the internet – discovery – by altering each web page for the user.

What products are Google-owned?

-       Anything with “Google” in the name – whether Google Search, Maps, Chrome etc.

-       Gmail – Google’s own e-mail platform

-       YouTube – the biggest video site, which they purchased in 2006

-       Picasa – online photo sharing, acquired in 2004

-       Blogger – blog writing and following site

-       FeedBurner – tool for managing RSS feeds

-       Orkut – social networking site particularly popular in India and Brazil

-       Android – the popular smartphone operating system

How do I stop it affecting me?

There are several ways to avoid this.

1.     Don’t sign in!

Many Google services don’t require a log in. Although, like many websites, Google will still store anonymous data.

2.     Clear your history

This is very simple: Sign in to your account, go to www.google.com/historyand select “Remove all Web History.” The same option is available on YouTube. This doesn’t mean your searches won’t be stored, they just won’t be attributed to your account.

3.     Wipe your browsing history on Google Chrome

If you use Chrome as your browser, click on the “wrench” icon, Select “Tools,” then “Clear browsing data,” and you can choose the time period you want to delete.

4.     Gmail Chat “off the record”

Start all of your conversations “off the record,” using the Actions icon. Then they won’t be saved in your history, or the history of the person who you’re talking to.

5.     Preferences

Visit the “Ads Preferences Page” where you can opt out of personalized advertisements.

6.     Google Dashboard

On the dashboard you can view a summary of information related to your account, and delete things you don’t like.

Navigate keeps you up to date on web and marketing trends.

Mark Zuckerburg has famously said that "privacy is dead". Will that come back to haunt him? The knives are now out for Zuckerberg following the announcement of the Facebook IPO.

Is Facebook really worth $100 billion?

Will it be overvalued because of hype?

Does Facebook have a sustainable business plan?

Will the markets stay loyal to a company which puts connection above making money?

Does Zuckerberg have too much power?

Will businesses face up to Facebook?

Is this the high point of another dotcom bubble?

Many businesses are still finding our way round social media, especially in marketing. The potential value of LinkedIn and Twitter for business are more apparent  than Facebook, whose strength seems to lie in the social side of life.

Most of us will keep dipping our toes, feet and even bodies in the warm water of this latest online opportunity – until a new fad surfaces. And we need to beware hype around "the next big thing". Creativity and caution are uneasy bedfellows.