Looking for some feedback and ideas on how to increase exposure for our business?

PasturesNew

Do you have a marketing manager? Business plan should have had a marketing plan, what does that say to do?

What networking are you doing?

Are you filling your time with freelance work, which'd help you build a bigger portfolio?

Could you slice up what you do into small chunks and then run 1-day workshops locally for people to come and learn XYZ?

What's your USP?

Can you create a local business group of similar companies to yourself, to swap ideas/collaborate and maybe hand over leads?

Are you writing columns for local/national magazines/newspapers?

Darkmatter_2

Hey,

I got a leaflet through my door yesterday from a company called thebigadvertiser.com, they say you can place a free ad. i just had a go and can confirm its free. pretty empty there thought but I thinks its new. definitely worth a look.

suzannewysiwyg

Hi is there anyone on here that can help with a similar issue? I don't have a website yet - are there any good free ones? I want people to be able to see what we do. I have had a good response from gumtree and ebay, but is there anything else similar? How can I locate other advertising sources, that offer cheap ads - like church bulletins etc? I am offering a typing service, initially for an hourly rate matching the minimum wage £5.93. I also do peoples CV's from start to finish for £10.00

steve1980

This is the website....

http://www.lightstreaminteractive.com/

Was your post regarding your own cashback site? If so then that's why it was reported and deleted. We are not allowed to offer our services direct but we are permitted to place our company websites in the homepage section of our profiles.

chalkie99

Right, now Steve has posted the website - :j

I agree with some of the comments above.

The white text on black background is not the easiest combination to read and the font is just too small to be comfortable on the eye.

It really doesn't have the WOW factor you would expect for someone offering design.

Simplify the wording.

Put your contact form on a contact page which has your address on it so people have confidence where you are.

Lose the 0845 number and use a local code.

You only get one chance to make a first impression and the current layout will just send people back to Google for an alternative.

Sorry to be critical.

s_b

Got to agree with chalkie99 the black background hurts your eyes and there is too many things flashing
I gave my opinions without seeing the site, but if you read them i can safely say they still apply to your site unfortunately.
The good thing is you realise fresh eyes need to give opinions and that shows that you are willing to listen and is good

All the best by the way

Horace

suzannewysiwyg wrote: »

Hi is there anyone on here that can help with a similar issue? I don't have a website yet - are there any good free ones? I want people to be able to see what we do. I have had a good response from gumtree and ebay, but is there anything else similar? How can I locate other advertising sources, that offer cheap ads - like church bulletins etc? I am offering a typing service, initially for an hourly rate matching the minimum wage £5.93. I also do peoples CV's from start to finish for £10.00

You are too cheap, time costs money, remember you need to factor the costs of your paper, ink etc into the price.

You could have a wordpress site which is easy to use and maintain - I know that I pay around £14.39 a month for my hosting which is more than reasonable.

To find church mags, maybe you need to visit a few local churches to see if they do mags, try your parish council too as they are likely to have magazines. Put a card up in the post office/corner shop window.

steve1980

Horace wrote: »

You are too cheap, time costs money, remember you need to factor the costs of your paper, ink etc into the price.

You could have a wordpress site which is easy to use and maintain - I know that I pay around £14.39 a month for my hosting which is more than reasonable.

To find church mags, maybe you need to visit a few local churches to see if they do mags, try your parish council too as they are likely to have magazines. Put a card up in the post office/corner shop window.

£14.39 a MONTH??

paulwf

As far as I can tell your website completely fails to tell me anything about the key staff members, even their names. For small businesses the key staff are what makes it unique, a few talented individuals are what sets it apart from the big agencies. It also feels much more personal to have some names to hand when calling up instead of just calling an 0845 number. Don't try and pretend to big a big agency if you aren't, a small team is a strength not a weakness to hide.

Your website contains a few typos, this should not happen as if your own website isn't 100% production quality it would put me off using you.

Try and simplify your sources of updates, having a blog, news page, twitter and facebook makes it hard to know where to look. I'm not sure what the answer is but perhaps integrate the streams on one page? I also don't think much of a social media company that only has 33 likes on Facebook. In fact I wouldn't use you to handle any of my social media with such a poor Facebook following.

You say you don't put prices so that you don't put people off no matter how big or small the job but perhaps you need to be more targeted. You can't win every client, you need a niche to specialise in and a USP to promote. What's yours?

As to the website the constantly moving images are terrible, I would suggest ditching the whole website and starting again. They are so annoying there is no way I would stay on the site long enough to find out what you do. I can't believe a design agency came up with that...sorry to be blunt but it does raise questions.

Back on the subject of targeting customers most companies that are interested in having a brand, website, facebook and twitter will already have these tools so you are going to face a difficult task getting them to switch to you. It will be much easier to get new businesses on board as they won't already have these tools. I'll leave you to work out how to target new businesses

Good luck with it, you are obviously a talented bunch I think it just needs someone objective to channel it.

Horace

steve1980 wrote: »

£14.39 a MONTH??

Yep I pay £14.39 a month but then I do have two websites:D