QR Code FACT!

QR codes are much older than you think, however. They were actually invented during the mid 1990s, and were used to track car parts during the process of manufacturing. As smart phones became popular, however, QR code scanning entered a broader market – advertising and marketing. Smart phone owners can now scan the QR codes and receive information about products and services in an instant.

The possibilities are pretty much endless when it comes to QR codes, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. It could cause an issue – where would it end? When will we stop using these QR codes and are people not going to get sick of them eventually? We’ll have to wait and see.

Whilst at present, QR codes are beneficial to a wide range of consumers – there’s no reason to say why the codes aren’t useful for businesses as well. Given that QR codes are able to provide a wide range of data and information on the performance and efficiency of the adverts too, then it could mean that a company would benefit from the codes as well.

Print ads obviously don’t have a way to measure their own performance. The only print ads that can do this are those that have a unique phone number, URL, email address or other form of contact. So a company is never really able to measure the success of their advertisement. QR codes fix this problem, use it in a clever way and you have cracked it.

Obviously, by ‘counting’ the amount of times that a website is visited (the website linked to the QR code), we can measure how successful a print advertisement was. Hence, not only is a QR code a great way to quickly get information, but it also tells the company behind the advertisement how well their advertisement has gone down and whether people are interested in the product. There are many exciting ways we could use QR codes, so maybe we’re using them in the wrong way right now!

5 QR Code Tips:

• Introduce QR Everywhere – Make sure QR Codes are used consistently and in as many places as you can.  Once your users get used to it, they’ll love the ease of being able to grab information with little more than a push of the button!
• Give Value – give away special discounts, free tickets, exclusive access which can compel users to interact and scan your QR Code.
• Simple is the key – make sure you use black and white versions, don’t try and do anything fancy as you could limit success rates with your QR Code
• Build affinity with your customer – if you can, build a landing page for mobile users or the whole site! A customer who has just scanned your QR Code is probably a mobile, on-the-move person and therefore will expect where ever you take them to, to be equally mobile friendly.
• Analyse – build brand loyalty, customer engagement and educate your audience. Arm yourself with this information and it will be easy to formulate a analytical report

By having optimised content on the product description pages of your online website store, you will be increasing traffic to the page. This is one of the most important things you can do. Product description pages contain some of the most vital information on the whole website.

This page is where your customers will be able to find out what the product does, have a look at photographs, specifications, read reviews and take a look at the pricing options. It’s also where your customer will make a decision about purchasing the product, which is incredibly important!

You need to be careful of duplicate content problems, however. This is a common problem. Companies that are selling the same product might use your product description on their own website – and if you allow this, then you lose your identity and will haemorrhage sales. So remember, if you allow other websites to sell your products, then you need to ensure that they are using their own unique product descriptions and their own keywords. Furthermore, don’t use the manufacturer’s product description, if you’re selling someone else’s product! Everyone else uses it, so it’s pretty pointless you doing the same.

You should also ensure that you use SEO friendly internal link networks. This is incredibly important, as it allows search engine spiders to crawl through your sites. You should ensure that the sidebar on your homepage is used to link to your category pages, and you should also make certain that there is an organised structure on your website that lists all of your products and online shop categories. This allows for simple user interaction and makes your site more user friendly.

Finally, don’t have a complicated URL. If you want to be successful, then you need a short and snappy URL that includes keywords. If you use a long and complicated address then users will not be able to relate to your brand, will not know soon enough what you sell. Remember, SEO is all about keywords but don’t over cook it – use your keywords whenever you can so that you can increase your online presence!

Brave Creative Peterborough offer a full digital service, which means in this instance, we not only build for SEO we can also optimise for SEO.

Call Peterborough 01733 392978 now to discuss SEO strategies.

So for those new to social media and twitter in particular, it naturally can be confusing and difficult to find out the best way to present yourself to the millions of users. After setting up yourself the long awaited twitter account, we have given you our 5 top twitter tips to what works best.

1. Twitter Picture

Your Twitter picture is an important part of making your first impression on Twitter, and it is vital that your picture is relative to your social relationship you want to create. The image size may be small but a professional shot or design will feature next to every tweet you post and every time your profile name is seen. It gives you the first opportunity to reach out to you potential followers.

2. Profile Details

It is surprising how little Twitter users take advantage of filling in all their details on their Twitter profile, but for a short amount of time taken you can give users an impression of you. So make sure you fill in all your details available to give out the best impression to users. It is also a good opportunity to link to your website, and filling in your website URL is vital.

3. Find people to follow

Connect with users to follow who you find interesting and it may help you start your twitter campaign. Follow people you may know, clients and anyone who interests you. Remember a follow could result in a follow back.

4. Follow Back

If you start to realise you are getting followers, it could be important to follow back those who you are find are interesting, and create your first twitter relationships.

5. Remember to be Polite

Thank your followers, and try and to reply to all direct messages and tweets to you. This can help you gain a good reputation and in the end a raise your twitter popularity.

If’ you’re looking for a social media strategy, give Brave Creative a call on their Peterborough office, 01733 392978

A job at the agency means:

You will join our small multi-disciplined Design Agency at our Peterborough, Cambridgeshire studio working in CSS, CSS2, HTML5 and graphical web design as your primary task. Working in a fast paced development environment, your main role will be the rapid development of clean, valid coded front end pages coupled with content driven back-end solutions either custom or open source.

What about you?

You will already need to be competent in CSS & CSS2/3, hand coding HTML, Graphic Design and show originality in your creative ideas. You will already have developed for multi-browser and platform environments and you will have experience of web and accessibility standards (W3C)

If you are self taught and have a real passion for the industry and can show you have competency in any of the areas below, then experience may not be essential.

Got the skills…the Essentials:

• CSS & CSS 2 (table less layout)
• Hand coded, valid XHTML strict
• Javascript, J-query
• HTML 5
• PHP
• Cross browser checking
• Web & accessibility standards (W3C)
• Adobe CS suite CS3+

Have experience in these Open Source platforms?:

• WordPress
• osCommerce
• Drupal
• ExpressionEngine
• Magento
• Joomla

You will be required to use Apple Macs, please advise if you have had experience or have the desire to use them or not. NOTE: we have converted other developers to the “right side”

Please provide examples of your own work, a CV of how you have entered into this field , what you are doing right now, plus what sort of salary you expect to start on, you also must be a UK resident for the last 5 years to be considered.

What do we offer?

A totally relaxed atmosphere

Ability to work on some interesting projects

Varied projects from day to day / month to month

Fresh Coffee & fruit

How to apply? its really easy…

To apply for this position, please submit your CV, a covering letter, example of your recent work both in design and development if applicable plus your current salary to hello@bravecreative.co.uk

A message to any agencies, NO AGENCIES PLEASE

The specialist winter tyres company wanted to give the everyday driver an ecommerce website that would supply them with a range of winter tyres, from well-know popular brands to economy ranges, with winter and all-weather tyres available. The website also provides the user with an easily to choose wheel and tyres packages available from company the parent company,  wheelbase alloys, which is made by selecting their car to provide them with packages which guaranteed to fit their model.

Wintertyres also features advice for the car owners, providing them with detailed information on winter tyres. ‘Live chat‘ is available for the user to speak in real-time to a tyre and wheel expert, providing help and guidance for the user buying the correct tyres.

Winter Tyres prides itself on customer service and giving them the best deal possible, which is important with cold and winter weather sneaking in quickly. Brrrr!

View wintertyres.com

Need a Magento website developed? call Brave Creative on 01733 392978

The Moment Magazine was originally launched to celebrate and empower the residents of Peterborough, Stamford and the surrounding towns and villages -  a voice for the community, not a myriad of adverts or a PR stunt, but a thoughtfully written piece of communication which reflects the strong values of families who work hard, play hard and businesses throughout our region who are the backbone of our economy – past and present.

The website encompasses everything which the magazine stands for and allows users a way of reading it’s content within a technological medium which many of us use as second nature – especially the young who live by it and demand it.

Every possible functionality has been built into the site so as to inspire interaction and stickiness around the site’s rich content pages. Read our full article on how the site was developed and what techniques were used to achieve this masterpiece here.

Read the full article…

A ‘like’ on Facebook indicates to you that the visitor has an interest in your business and wants to hear what you say. It is similar to someone wanting to receive your newsletters or opting in on your email marketing campaigns. The informal nature of Facebook means that this can help you build a personal relationship with your customers and engage with them much more.

2. Engage with Users.

A Facebook user who ‘likes’ you, is more likely to be a much be active and Facebook claim the average ‘liker’ has 2.4times the amount of friends, than the typical social networker. They are 5.3 times more likely to click onto external links and are much interested in exploring the content that is shared on Facebook.

3. Email-like Marketing

Once you have built up a small amount of ‘likes’ you can think about using the built in messaging feature Facebook provides you. You can send out broadcast-style emails similar to an existing HTML Email campaigns you have running to all your fans, or you can narrow it down to specific type such as age, gender or others. It is important not to over-use this feature, but the occasional message to your fans is another way to keep your company in the minds of your customers.

4. Appearing on news feeds.

Once you have started to post content on your facebook page, it will appear on your fans news feeds. A full news story is displayed with a hyperlink to the source of the story, a thumbnail image, and text taken from the story itself. The posts can be ‘liked’ by your fans and as a result this will appear on their own Facebook wall, and be seen by their friends. This is a great way to spread the word and increase traffic to your page and also to your website if the original content was posted from there.

5. Website Traffic

A direct result of incorporating the like button to your website and posting on your Facebook, is more traffic to your website. Each time visitors do click the ‘like’ button featured on your web page, it is shared with all of their friends and this can encourage them to your own website.  It is also important to note that the Facebook social plug-in for your website is only a small amount of code and is fairly simple to implement to your site, even for those lacking the technical skills for this.

6. Become part of Facebook

If your post, or story is ‘liked’ by one of your fans, it can become a node on the Facebook graph, as a result this will allow it to start appearing in searches. A product, brand or service will also appear on the profile of your Facebook fan.

7. Effective Advertising

The advertising platform on Facebook keeps a record of all ‘like’ activity. Those who use this platform can access this data and as a result can produce targeted ads for your social media marketing. Therefore those who choose to use this platform can achieve a higher degree of relevance when it comes to their advertising. To beat your rivals to gain those important Facebook Fans, it could also be vital that you choose to create a your own Facebook page design.

8. Likes and Insights

Every Facebook Page has associated analytics alongside called Insights. Insights give you detailed data on fan activity on that page, along with a break-up of information on those fans, including age, gender and location. All of this information can be essential for market research and allow you to target the market of your Facebook fans much better.

Your main priority when running a small business is to keep the revenue coming in and even if your do feel branding is important it may come low on your to-do list. As the day-to-day tasks will grow and revolve around keeping the customers happy it’s understandable.

Whether you’re a window cleaner, run a restaurant or a sole trader, your reputation is important to you, and just like reputation, branding is all about the impression you make. If you are hoping for your business to become a real success from the impression of your branding, then this should convey what is special about your business and it should also show you in a positive progressive light. Think of how successful you could be if you gave a good impression all of the time through your branding – Advertising, Stationery, Vehicle Graphics, Interiors, Website or Clothing.

The main parts to this process and brand development include deciding what your business stands for, what your unique selling points (USPs) are and who you are aiming your business at. It is important that all aspects of your business reflect this and there is consistency always – Don’t try and do too many DIY parts yourself, no matter how small, the consistency may show up far more than you think.

Creating the right impression for your business

If you don’t think branding is for you, your not alone.

Many people believe that branding is only for large business and companies and that only they can afford it. But your company name, what your customers say about your business and what it is like to do business with you, is all part of your company’s branding. It is not just the visual impact that has an effect on your company’s branding, and agreeing to the process of brand development for your business can alter your reputation greatly. A polished and unique branding can open doors for your business and an attractive logo design, business name, and overall impression of your brand can give leads to a higher profile.

Your branding as a business can be just as important to your relationships with your partners and suppliers, as it is to your customers who will bring in the revenue for your business. A well developed branding can set yourself apart from your competitors and can push clients in your direction rather than theirs. This will then show you that branding is not just for large companies and can be easily affordable with long-term benefits for your business and reputation, overall generating the most attractive part being a higher revenue.

If you are interested in getting either your existing brand/logo redesigned by professionals, call Brave Creative on Peterborough 01733 392978 today!

Brave Creative are looking to recruit a Junior Web Designer / Developer with good all round HTML and CSS skills.

You will join our small multi-disciplined Design Agency at our Peterborough studio as a trainee in CSS, CSS2, HTML and graphical web design.​ You will be working in a fast paced development environment.​ Your main role will be the rapid development of usability prototypes & web pages.

You will need to be already competent in CSS & CSS2/3, hand coding HTML, graphic design and show originality in your creative ideas.​ You will have developed for multi-browser and platform environments and you will have experience of web and accessibility standards (W3C)

Essential Web skills:

• CSS & CSS 2 (tableless layout)
• Hand coded, valid XHTML strict
• Cross browser optimisation
• Web & accessibility standards (W3C)
• Photoshop
• Flash
• Illustrator

Important:

Please provide examples of your own online design/​ frontend development work.Please contact us stating your interest: hello@bravecreative.co.uk