What is Magento?

Magento is a powerful and robust ecommerce platform capable of providing online retailing solutions for small and large retailers alike. Magento was established in 2008 and in a short space of time has become the number one ecommerce choice. That global brands such as Samsung, The North Face and Fred Perry opt for Magento highlights just how effective the platform is.

Why Use Magento?

As a piece of ecommerce software, Magento is well designed and thoroughly thought out. It is rich in the features that are essential when running a successful online store and you can rely on the software to not let you down. A few of its integral features include

• Online Checkout

• Secure Payment Gateways

• Shipping

• Order Management

How We Can Help

At Yoma we are Magento development experts. We have years of experience in creating exemplary Magento sites that are visually stunning, effective and most importantly, profitable. As Magento is an Open Source platform, our designers are not restricted and can build a site that fits with your specifications. This means we can use Magento to provide you with a website that looks and does exactly what you want it to. You don’t have to take our word for it, just look at our previous work with The Cavern Club, Soap and Glory and Rare London to name a few.

We are not just there for the build either. At Yoma we like to supply full circle Magento support. This includes our help on issues such as customer analysis, competitor analysis, stock management, back end integration (EPOS) and customer engagement.

If you need a stylish and effective website then feel free to give us a call. Our experts will be glad to  listen to your ideas and then demonstrate the solutions we can offer that will deliver online success for your business.

It is often the case that when a company wishes to increase its online presence their first thought is social media. Whilst it is true that effective social media marketing can boost a company’s profile, a well run blog can have the same effect yet this option regularly overlooked. This is possibly because people deem blogging to be too large a commitment for too little a return. This post will aim counter this argument by pointing out the great things a blog can do for your business.

1) Increased Reputation – By running a blog full of valuable content, you can show off your company’s personality and also position yourself as your industry’s market expert. These days people tend to research online before opting to buy a product or a service. Therefore, having an informative blog that demonstrates what your company is about and answers the F.A.Q’s within your field will prove you are an authority on the matter and will make you the more credible choice when compared to non-blogging competitors.

2) Regular Stream of New Potential Clients – Blogging is a fantastic way of generating traffic. The internet is full of useful, informative articles being passed around and shared by people who found the information helpful. This means that every time somebody shares a link to your blog a new potential client is reviewing your company’s site and reading of your services. Blog visitors are often said to be the best kind of traffic when it comes to generating sales. As a study on E-consulancy tells us that visitors to blogs often view 11 more pages and spend 8 minutes longer on the site compared to other visitors, they are also 10% more likely to return. What’s more, through having an ‘opt in’ to receive future blogs via email; you are also collecting valuable data which you can use on future email marketing campaigns.

3) Focal Point for Social Media – It is often the case that companies amass Facebook ‘fans’ or Twitter ‘followers’ but then don’t have anything to say to them. By linking to blog posts on your social media, not only are you adding functionality to your social outlets but you are also directing people back to your site which may then lead to a sale or a business enquiry.

4) Improved SEO – Blogging is a great way of improving your site’s SEO. Search engines love sites that produce regular, unique content and having a blog will let you give this to them. With every article you write Google will re-index your blog lifting your site higher in the search rankings. You can also write blog posts relating to search terms that generate a lot of traffic and focus on these keywords. Doing this is a great way of ranking above your competitors for the keywords that are relevant to your business. The effect of this will be increased traffic on your site and with that more potential clients.

If you would like to talk about blogging or any other digital matter, give Yoma a call, one of our ecommerce experts will be glad to have a chat with you.

Slowly but surely, web searches and advertising spend on mobiles has increased year on year. Today it was revealed by The Drum that mobile ad spend has increased ‘157% from 2010 to 2011’ a statistic that cannot be ignored by those who are yet to create an independent mobile strategy.

From a PPC point of view, mobile advertising is a massive market that is waiting to be tapped into. There are several ways you can start to optimise your AdWords campaigns for the mobile generation.

If your campaigns are currently opted into ‘all devices’ you may think you are ahead of the game; your ads are showing on mobiles so why should you make any changes? Simply; mobile search results appear differently to desktop search results. Instead of having 3 ads at the top of the page, and 6-7 down the side, there is only 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom. It is therefore crucial for your bids to be optimised in order to appear in the top two positions, or suffer a low CTR. Creating separate ‘mobile’ campaigns will allow you to monitor the position, analyse the performance and target the mobile user much more effectively.

If you are unsure whether mobile campaign would work for you, check out the data you already have. In the AdWords interface, under the campaigns tab, select ‘segment’ and segment your data by ‘device’. This will split out your campaigns into ‘desktop’, ‘mobile’ and ‘tablet’. This way you can see if a device is working well for you eg. Lower CPCs or lower CPA’s and split it out into its own campaign. If not, change the devices you are targeting. If mobiles are working well for you and you haven’t actively been optimising for this device, imagine what you could achieve by splitting it out.

If you are not currently targeting mobiles, then it is time to be smart. People search differently when they are on their mobiles; they are more likely to be on the move and looking for something more specific and faster. Utilise the tools that Google provides; You can chose only to see ‘mobile’ keyword ideas in Google Keyword Tool to give you more of any idea how people will search for your product or service on their mobile. Once your ads are live, you can also use the Ad Preview Tool to see how your ads will be displayed on a mobile device.

As people are likely to be on the move, utilise all the Ad Extensions in AdWords. Get Location Extensions set up so that the user knows exactly where you are. Set up Call Extensions so that it is straight forward for people to get in touch with you with one simple click. Get Site Links or Product Extensions set up so it’s easier for the user to get through to the content they really want.

We hope this clear up how best to optimise for mobiles. If you would like to talk about setting up a mobile PPC campaign or for any PPC advice, give us a call today.

According to the latest report from data analysts eMarketer, this year will see US online advertising revenue grow by 20% to reach just under $40 billion. The growth in digital advertising’s revenue is in stark contrast to print media’s figures which have fallen by 6%, meaning that this year will see the total spent on online ads exceeding print media by an estimated $6 billion. A further study published by the media communications company Carat forecasts that worldwide advertising figures for 2013 will see a global difference between digital and print advertising spending of 5.8% in digital’s favour. What’s more, it is not just print media’s advertising dominance that is being challenged by digital. eMarketer’s study also predicted that by 2016 online ad spending will have reached $62 billion, the same figure currently being spent on television advertising.

Why is Digital Advertising Booming?

So far it appears there are three key factors in the growth of digital advertising

1. Ever Growing Internet Population – With each passing year there is a rise in the number of people using the internet and this growth is being aided by the increased penetration of mobile internet access. As the number of internet users grows, so too does online investment in order to match the amplified consumer appetite for online videos, pictures and social media.

2. Online Advertising’s Measurability – Lord Leverhulme once famously said ‘I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted, I’m just not sure which half’. Well, advertising digitally puts this problem to bed. The beauty of online advertising is that you can track the success of your ad campaign. By only paying when your ad is clicked on you can ensure that your advertising budget is being used wisely. With digital advertising you can also track the data to discover which campaigns are working and which need a little tweaking. This is invaluable information for companies on a budget and is simply unobtainable when advertising in print.

3. Great Return on Investment (ROI) – For a few years now online marketing has surpassed the ROI provided by offline advertising. This is because readers are far more likely to respond to digital advertising compared to a printed ad. This claim is backed up by a study completed by media research firm Affinity. Their study found that readers were much more likely to respond to an iPad advert by following a link or making a purchase than print readers who had seen the equivalent advert. Affinity’s Managing Director Tom Robinson puts this down to the interactivity of online advertising. He states that “digital offers more opportunities to respond with the interactivity, the links built in, the videos, and that is directly reflected in the fact that we’re getting higher reader ad effectiveness scores on the digital side”.

 Methods of Advertising Online

1. Pay Per Click (PPC) – PPC is another method of online advertising using search engines. PPC involves bidding for keywords. When you win your bid, your advert will then appear in the ‘sponsored section’ whenever people search for terms related to your website or product. As its name suggests, you only pay for your ad if a user interacts with it.

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – Search engines are the main source of traffic so utilising them is key for generating online revenue. In the organic results (i.e. not paid for ads) search engines rank the results based on how relevant they are to the desired search terms, the higher your site, the more traffic you will receive. SEO is based around making sure your site is as well equipped as possible to rank well for the keyword terms that matter most for your business.

3. Email Marketing – Email Marketing is a powerful way of gaining online revenue. Carefully constructed emails can be used to acquire new customers, tempt old ones back, advertise products and enhance customer loyalty.

These are just three ways of increasing traffic to your site using online advertising. If you would like to talk to us about these or any other method of generating online sales such as social media or improving your website, feel free to call for a consultation with one of our experts.

Watch out Facebook and Twitter, there is a new player on the scene. Over the past year a new social media platform called Pinterest has gone from strength to strength. It is estimated that in just 10 months Pinterest has managed to attract over 13 million users and is still growing. This post aims to explain what Pinterest does and how brands are utilising it.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an image based social media platform in which users create boards and then ‘pin’ relevant images to them, it’s sort of like an online scrap book. As it is a social media platform, users can also share their boards, follow other users and comment on or ‘repin’ images they find on the site. In terms of appearance the site is like a visually based Twitter in the sense that you will get real time updates of what the people you are following have been pinning.

How are people using Pinterest??

The really interesting thing for retailers and brands is how people are interacting with the site. As well as adding pictures of their own interests and hobbies, users tend to go on the site when they are in need of inspiration. For example, if somebody is throwing a dinner party they may search for party ideas, likewise lots of ideas for interior decorating, recipes or fashion can be found on the site. If a user sees something they like on Pinterest, they are likely to click through to the site and investigate further. Put simply, Pinterest is affecting people’s buying habits by taking a potential customer through the first stage of the buying process, recognition and awareness.

Four ways brands should use Pinterest

1. Promote a Lifestyle – When customers identify with a brand, a lot of the time it is because they connect that brand with a positive life style choice. A great example of this is Coca Cola’s creation of ‘moodboards’ which promote Coca Cola as a product that is vibrant, youthful and fun.

2. Showcase Products – Although retailers should be careful not to spam users, Pinterest is undoubtedly a great place to show off products. On Facebook a brand’s presence can sometimes feel invasive, however, people are openly using Pinterest as a shopping tool. Looking for a pair of jeans? Search for them in Pinterest and see a range of the latest trends. If brands are going to show case their products, make sure that they are displayed in a fun and colourful way. Adidas do a pretty good job on their product boards.

3. Run Competitions – Nothing attracts interest like a competition. There is great potential for brands to use Pinterest to get their products out there and talked about. Contests should be related to the brand and designed to get people ‘repinning’ and sharing to ensure the competition goes viral. A good example of this is fashion company Lands’ End competition. They asked users to pin items from the company’ site onto their competition board for a chance to win the item. The result, a lot of people within the competitions users’ network becoming familiar with not only Land’s End but also their products.

4. Interact with Customers – Certain brands have had great success in using Pinterest as an online focus group. Using the platform you can find out from users what products are popular and how people identify with your brand. Used correctly Pinterest can provide truly valuable insight by means more natural than a survey.

If you would like to promote your brand using Pinterest or any other social media platform but need a helping hand, give us a call at Yoma, we are happy to help.

Ecommerce is continuing to go from strength to strength right across Europe. According to statistics from COMSTORE, last year saw 270 million unique users visit an online retail site in January alone. These figures are promising for the EU. As early as 2010, the EU announced its drive to improve and accelerate European internet use through its Digital Agenda scheme. Amongst the Digital Agenda’s key aims were improving broadband availability, converting more people into regular internet users and improving ecommerce figures. In regards to these aims, the EU has made remarkable improvements right across the board and nowhere are these improvements more visible than in the UK.

Impressive UK Ecommerce Figures

Figures from the Centre of Retail Research tell us that European ecommerce brought in a collective £169,880 bn with the UK accounting for £50.34 bn of this sum alone. This is even more impressive when it is considered that its nearest competitor, Germany, lagged behind this amount by £12.16 bn.

Other stats from the EU’s own site tell us that whilst across the EU, the average of the population shopping online is just 40%, within Britain it is a whopping 67%. Britain’s online retailing success is due partly to how readily available broadband services are to the population and with government plans to further improve the availability and speed of broadband, yet more growth can be expected.

What does Ecommerce do for the UK?

The short answer is a great deal. The internet is not going away and it has been suggested that over the course of the next decade the internet will either influence or enable around 90% of retail sales. Ecommerce is bolstering Britain’s economy although this is hardly a surprise when it is considered that British retailers make up a third of the total cross border trade within the EU on top of producing year on year domestic e-retail growth of around 14%.

Britain’s online drive is also leading to job creation; it is estimated that there will be 1.5 million UK staff working in ecommerce by 2015.

What’s Happening in 2012?

The good news is that forecasts for this year continue to be very promising. Across the EU we can expect to see an overall average growth of 16.1% with the UK remaining the overall leader with an impressive 14% growth forecast. These figures again come from the CRR and after they predicted last year’s increase to the tee, it seems they can be trusted.

If you want any tips on how your company can contribute to Britain’s booming online retail sector, talk to us at Yoma, our ecommerce experts will be only too glad to point you in the right direction.

A new Panda update has been confirmed by Google at the same time as they announce 40 search updates that have either happened in the last month or are in the process of being implemented as you read.

It would be difficult to summarize the changes detailed in the Google blog post in their entirety but there are some that will most likely be of more interest than others:

 Panda 3.3 Update

Google released the following information about the most recent Panda-related change:

“This launch refreshes data in the Panda system, making it more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes on the web.”

This sounds along the lines of Panda 3.2, which occurred in mid-January and was described only as a minor update or “data refresh”. It was said that it was not related to new or changed ranking signals.

 Link Evaluation

One of the 40 search updates that is likely to induce much discussion is the eradication of a link evaluation signal that Google has been using for years.

“We often use characteristics of links to help us figure out the topic of a linked page. We have changed the way in which we evaluate links; in particular, we are turning off a method of link analysis that we used for several years. We often rearchitect or turn off parts of our scoring in order to keep our system maintainable, clean and understandable.”

When prompted for further clarification on these changes that they only briefly detail in their blog posts, Google have signified that the posts are as informative as they want them to be. This, in addition to Google’s reasonable, and some would say essential, hesitancy to be too transparent regarding ranking signals means it is probably safe to assume that little more information will be released about this than what is seen above.

 Improvements to Ranking for Local Search Results

In addition to the changes in link evaluation, the company says that traditional algorithmic ranking factors are now playing a more substantial part in generating local search results:

“This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.”

Traditional methods of SEO have been playing a bigger part in Google’s local search since Places Search was launched in late 2010 and it appears that this trend will continue.

Google says that they are now able to determine when both queries and documents are local to the user more accurately than before because of a new system that will allow them to find results from a user’s geographical location more accurately.

Other Google Updates

There are many other updates that may or may not be of interest. For more information, you can see the entire Google blog post here. In addition to the elements covered above, it may be useful to pay attention to the following:

• More accurate detection of official pages

• Expand the size of our images index in Universal Search

• “Site:” query update

• International launch of shopping rich snippets

Why not get in touch with us here at Yoma to let us know your thoughts or if you would like any further information.

According to figures from Twopcharts this Wednesday could see Twitter reach 500 million users. This is the equivalent of 1 in every 14 people living today and what’s more, the social media channel’s growth is showing no signs of slowing down. If you happen to be one of the few people who are not familiar with Twitter, here is a little background to the platform.

Twitter is a social media site that enables users to communicate though “tweeting”. A “tweet” is restricted to 140 characters or less. This allows users and brands to tweet short updates  in real time either publicly or privately to other Twitter users. Since Twitter began, “tweets” have evolved and now we see users using “hashtags” which are shared links surrounding topics of interest. As well as being a way of keeping in touch with friends and discovering news in real time, Twitter is also a great way for both celebrities and brands to reach out and engage with their followers.

Although Twitter is becoming increasingly popular it is still lagging behind its main competitor Facebook in terms of registered users. Facebook currently has 850 million registered users in their database but it seems this gap could quickly be closed with Twitter gaining new users at a rate of 12 per second. Twopcharts.com even suggest that the 600 million mark could be reached within the next 3 month, perhaps owing to Twitter’s announcement on Tuesday that iPhone and Android app users can expect updates that will speed up finding friends and improve the current copy-and-paste options.

However, some industry experts refute these claims due to the fact that Twitter’s user count is based on registered users, not active users. Although many users are signing up to Twitter, many are leaving their accounts dormant. It is estimated that 20% – 25% of every 100,000 new Twitter accounts created end up as un-active and only 10% of that group will post tweets. Other figures from Twopcharts suggest that 45 % of users have never sent a tweet, only 20% have sent more than ten tweets and that just 10% of users have sent over 100 tweets. Twitter itself seems to back up these claims, their official page states that the site has 100 million active users.

Regardless of these statistics, it is still pretty obvious that Twitter is a platform that is growing increasingly popular and will continue to do so. Although there are currently a lot of inactive users, it is predicted that over time these users will spend more time becoming familiar with the site and become active users themselves. For brands and businesses, Twitter is a brilliant platform for engaging with both new and old customers and with Twitter’s booming user numbers it seems its importance will continue to grow in 2012 and beyond.

UPDATE – Reports coming in have suggested that Twitter has now managed to smash the 500 million mark.

Iconic is a word that is often overused but not when describing The Cavern Club, the birth place of The Beatles. When Yoma were asked to design their website, we knew we needed to create a site that matched the cutting edge style, image and philosophy of the world renowned club. Using our digital expertise, we quickly set about the task.

Working with The Cavern Club’s owners, we established what kind of direction they wanted to take the site. Following these meetings we then began constructing a site that would serve to detail the history of the club, sell official Cavern merchandise, advertise upcoming events and provide an easy to navigate user experience with an inclusive community feel.

In order to meet this objective we had to be just as innovative as the site we were creating. We developed the site’s stylish feel using our in depth knowledge of the CMS platform Joomla. We then took the complicated step of integrating Magento’s powerful e-commerce system which enabled the site to efficiently sell Cavern Club merchandise against a visually attractive backdrop. As well as providing interesting and detailed content about the club’s history, our team designed an effective and easy to use What’s On Guide in which users can see what’s available and book tickets hassle free.

To foster the inclusive feel our client desired we also took the step of creating a member’s only section that gave the user access to restricted content such as additional information and products. After the web build was complete our work was still not done. With our expertise in SEO, the Cavern Club now ranks on the first page for the highly completive keyword “Beatles Merchandise” which directs a lot of traffic and revenue towards the site.

The whole of Yoma are extremely proud of our work with The Cavern Club and feel it demonstrates our capabilities perfectly. If you are looking for an online marketing agency that will provide a top quality service Eight Days A Week, talk to Yoma.

On May 26th 2012 the EU Cookie Law will come into effect in the UK. This law will require website owners to significantly alter how their site operates as well as bringing about massive changes to internet user’s browsing and online shopping experiences. Whilst full details of the EU Directive can be found here, this post aims to shred a little light on what the law means for UK e-commerce companies.

 What are Cookies?

To understand the law we first need to know what cookies are. Cookies are small files that almost all websites use as a kind of memory. Cookies are stored in the user’s browser and enable a site to remember lots of little bits of information about how we use the site. On the whole cookies make the user’s web experience easier by automatically remembering your log in details or remembering settings like text size. However, cookies can also be used to track and collect data about which sites you have visited. Advertisers can then use this information to target you with ads based on the sites you have visited.

 What is the Purpose of the EU Cookie Law?

It is the use of these ‘tracking cookies’ that the EU Cookie Law aims to tackle. The EU Cookie Law aims to do this by insisting that websites inform and obtain explicit consent for the use of cookies in order to give web users a greater degree of control over their online privacy. Failure to adhere to the new law could have serious ramifications as the body responsible for administering the law; the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has been given the power to fine companies up to £500k for failing to comply.

 What does the Law Mean for Website Owners?

Put simply, most EU websites will have to change or risk breaking the law. Presently over 92% of all websites use cookies, these websites will either have to stop using cookies altogether or start asking for permission to use them. Although the law will affect the vast majority of cookies, cookies deemed to be “strictly necessary for a service requested by a user” such as those used to remember that something has been added to a shopping basket will be exempt.

 What Will Companies Need To Do?

Although the law may seem like a nuisance, burying your head in the sand will not make it go away. The ICO’s guide lines offer three main points of advice to companies looking to get cookie legal.

• Find out what cookies you are using on your site

• Work out which cookies you need to obtain consent for

• Build a process of obtaining content on your website.

Example of "Cookie Opt In" Option from ICO Website

If you feel like you need guidance and advice on how best to prepare your company for the upcoming cookie law changes, feel free to call us at Yoma. Our experts will be able to ensure that your site complies with the law change in a way that maintains your site’s functionality as much as possible.