Every year we produce tee shirts which we give away at networking events, to clients and friends. It is a great way to market the company, particularly if the shirt is something more than a big business card. We try to give ours a little style and desirability to it. This year we have gone for what one of the designers called “Techno-surf”.

Anyway, we like designing tee shirts. It demonstrates our graphic skills and allows us a little freedom in terms of design, what we do and why we do it. It also generates a bit of work in the form of tee shirt designs for clients.

It has to be said that every year we get people asking us if they can have one. Last year we had to stop because it was costing us a fortune. This year if you like the tee shirt then let us know. If you are a client have one or more with our compliments. If you are a friend then you can probably have one if you pester us enough. If you are a relative, wait until Birthday, Christmas, Passover, Ramadan, etc. If you are anyone else we can sell one to you at about £15.

All tee shirts have been made by our wonderful clients and friends Squat Orange If you don’t want one of our tee shirts, you will want one of theirs!

Online marketing is one of those phrases which seems to crop up a lot. It usually means “Get me to the top page of a Google search”. However ‘Online Marketing’ is not so narrow a concept. In fact is part of a general marketing effort and usually has a branding core to it.

The web is where people are searching, researching, running projects and whole businesses. It is where you probably already are, but what may not be obvious is why you bothered in the first place. The page ranking on Google is not going to do you much good if your visitors don’t get you when they get there. It all has to make sense, not to you, but to the end user. In the same way that anything you do off-line also has to make sense. And these days they probably have to make the same kind of sense in an integrated way.

This comes down to brand. I do not mean logo, I mean brand as defined by “…a shared perception of a given thing”. It’s what people know you as, and how comfortable they are with your business. What the Americans call ‘Corporate DNA’ – a classic Americanism, but you get what they mean. It is what you are, what you cannot help being it is making the most of your good bits, improving the not so good bits and engaging with the sort of people who will be attracted to your ‘brand’.

To stop short of becoming a lecture about marketing, simply put, marketing on the web is not much different from marketing anywhere else. However, the execution can be much cheaper. If you can provide a reason to return, by involving your visitors, you create a following. And your followers will become your brand ambassadors without asking for any money in return.

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