Online marketing tips - Knowledge and ideas with Steve Masters

Prize draw tips – ideas for prizes

When it comes to running a draw, it’s the prize that counts. But you don’t need to splash out on a huge grand prize to get attention. Just think creatively.

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

This is one of those books that every business owner and every manager should read. It demonstrates, with a series of real world examples, how it is possible to solve seemingly insurmountable business problems. Read on to find out how.

Greed all about it! Black Friday gets out of hand

Black Friday saw injuries and arrests in the UK on 28th November as shoppers climbed over each other to fight for limited deals in supermarkets and other shops. The BBC and other media outlets reported that police were called to several shops, with one woman being injured by a falling television.

YouTube advertises itself with pizza trickery

The Tony’s Pizza ad by YouTube is a clever way to show off its own value as an advertising medium, with a watchable video that works.

Benedict Cumberpatch does the ice bucket challenge

Search trends prove the ice bucket challenge worked

Google search trends show that the ice bucket challenge has massively increased awareness for ALS and MND in less than a month. But not everyone likes it.

Beware of tools that break data protection laws

Publicising people’s personal email addresses without their permission is a clear breach of UK Data Protection Law. Be wary of third party CRM tools.

How to use keyboard shortcuts on Twitter

You can speed up your use of Twitter by learning these simple keyboard shortcuts – removing the need to click through menus.

Do rude logos happen by accident? That’s a phallusy

Logos that look like a penis, vagina or a uterus – are they intentional or just an error of judgement? Have a look at some and decide for yourself.

SEO: Don’t confuse bounce rates with bounces

What Google is looking for is quality pages that are relevant to searcher intent. It wants to present results that match what people are looking for. If a searcher sees your website in the results and clicks through, this is a signal to Google that your result was at least enough to attract a click. But if the user clicks back to Google within a couple of seconds, this could tell Google that they didn’t like what they saw,

How to use Google’s search removal request form

Google has introduced a form for EU subjects to ask for content to be removed from Google, if it is irrelevant, outdated or inappropriate. Read more.

Making the case for user-friendly passwords

The point of choosing and saving a password on any site is part of the user experience. Don’t leave this functionality to your developer, who often thinks of security first, user experience second.

Turning the periodic tables on marketing

The Periodic Table of Elements, created by Dmitri Mendeleev, is probably the most famous and infographic in history. Since it was published in 1869, the Table of Elements has been a feature of science labs and classrooms in schools all over the world. We’ve grown up with it, but only recently has this infographic taken on a new lease of life.