Insights & News
Read the latest marketing news & industry advice from our team of experts
8 tips to help start promoting your business online
A common misconception about the world wide web and business is that if you build a website, customers will come. Unfortunately, that's not the case. The internet is saturated with websites and...
7 ways to improve your brand continuity offline and online
The term brand is one of those words that is widely used, but often not fully understood. What does the word mean and how has the meaning and application changed over the years? The very first...
5 tips to learn about content marketing
With search engines putting more emphasis on ranking websites with a wide range of high quality and varied content, we want to take the time to let you know how you can be producing and delivering...
8 small business productivity tips to help you make the most of 2015
It's vital, in our fast paced world, to appreciate the importance of being flexible and working quick - and working smart, to get great results from our marketing. Read more in the following 8...
5 ways to get the right marketing balance for your online presence
At at time when digital natives are coming of age, it is important to get the right balance for your business through a continuous and active online presence. Follow our top tips below on how you...
6 tips to increase the number of Twitter followers of your small business
Gaining new followers is vital to your company's success, with more people purchasing from brands they interact with on Twitter your business could benefit. 1) A new follower is a new lead When you...
Top 5 tips to building a better business website
Your website is essentially your shop front for your customers. They will find your page, browse around for a while and leave. How your website looks could be the deciding factor for if they chose...
5 reasons why a mobile friendly website is now essential for your business
On November 18th Google announced they would be adding a mobile friendly tag to all their search results. This means websites that have been optimised for mobile devices would be prioritised on...
Basic guide to branding
Whether you are setting up your business or re-branding, choosing the look and feel of your brand is an exciting time. For whatever reason you have chosen the path of being a business owner; from...
7 tips to help get your business started on social media
Promoting your business on the web and new social media platforms can be an overwhelming task. Things have moved on a long way since a simple advert in the local paper would suffice; the internet...
5 online security tips in the post ‘heartbleed bug’ world
Staying safe online is often something the we overlook. Our usual offline security tips are just part of our lives, locking the front door and setting the home alarm is routine, making sure laptops...
Top 10 New Year Resolutions
With 2014 drawing to a close and the thought of starting work again in 2015, many small businesses struggle with setting resolutions for a new year. This doesn't have to be a daunting prospect and...
10 reasons why social media is important for your business
When you have a million and one things to do in the day to day running of your business, we know it can be hard to keep your social media presence up to date, check out these top 10 reasons why you...
Beware of Chinese domain name scam emails
The reason that you have landed here is likely due to an email in your inbox from an Asian named domain name registrar such as China Domain Name Registration Center Asian Domain Registration Service...
Google announces the cancellation of authorship photos in search results
In June 2014, Google announced it would no longer be displaying author photographs. These photographs were previously displayed alongside search results of content from Google+ authors. Anybody with...
Our top 6 tips for maintaining concentration in the office or at work
One of the worst things about daily distractions is the fact that you may, or may not know you are even being distracted by them! We have so much going on in our daily lives that is hard to balance,...
Building and maintaining the presence for your business online – a manageable balancing act?
Building and maintaining an active presence for your business online - top tips using social media When you run a small to medium size business, you often carry out the roles of several employees...
Online Security: The Heartbleed Bug and your password security across the internet
A newly identified bug named the Heartbleed Bug has made nearly 70% of all websites on the Internet insecure — over 600 million, to put this in context. The Heart bleed Bug makes the secret "keys"...
SME marketing budget calculator
The core calculation here looks at your last 12 months turnover and your growth goals, then calculates your projected marketing budget for the year ahead. Those figures provide the base amounts,...
Benefits of blogging about your local business
Small businesses serving local customers have a lot to gain from regularly posting about their business. Blogging not only reassures and informs potential customers that the company is active, but...
Latest news and projects completed this month
An unbroken week of sunshine and clear blue skies - the summer is off to a great start and here at Alloy it's heating up. Regretfully, we haven't had much time for sunbathing but another busy...
Top Tips for Local Business Outreach using Facebook
Just like using Twitter to promote your local business, Facebook is a vital source of advertisement for your business. Channelling followers to your website is the main goal. Please read the...
Top Tips for Local Business Outreach using Twitter
Twitter is a key tool to drive traffic to your website, but it is also about interacting with people. Take a look at our essential tips to get to grips with the power of those 140 characters......