SME Marketing

Marketing News: The emergence of online social networks is creating more opportunities for women in business today

As we fast approach New Year's Eve, mums across the UK are the most likely to make a resolution to start their own business in 2010 as the clocks strike midnight. One in ten mums surveyed by BT Business, aspire to have their own business, with one in 5 looking to have more flexibility on choosing the hours they work. Nearly 15% of women have already started their own businesses since having children proving that 'mumpreneurs' are a growing force in the UK economy and will increasingly ditch the 9 to 5 in favour of being their own boss. Forty four per cent of respondents felt that the emergence of online social networks is creating more opportunities for women in business today. Choosing the hours they work (62%), achieving a better balance between their work and family life (50%) and being their own boss (38%) were the top 3 most cited reasons by mumpreneurs. For women looking to start their own business nearly a third would look to turn their living rooms, kitchens

Marketing News: The emergence of online social networks is creating more opportunities for women in business today
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Marketing News: Sales freelancers help UK small businesses survive recession

New research into 43,000 users of PeoplePerHour.com reveals how freelance sales staff have helped UK small businesses cut costs and ramp-up sales to survive recession. PeoplePerHour.com – the UK's marketplace for small business services – today revealed the first findings from the survey of its top 316 small business users and data from its 43,000-strong user base PeoplePerHour.com's report – entitled The emergence of a remote, home-based salesforce, and published for the first time today – shows how demand for sales-related freelancers outstrips every other business service by over 150%. Since January 2008, sales have accounted for a staggering 25 percent of 12,000+ project listings on PeoplePerHour.com, despite being one of over 30 skills categories on the site. The growth in demand for remote freelance sales staff has been fuelled by the recession, which has forced small business owners focus on cost-cutting but equally on ramping up their sales in as cost-effective an

Marketing News: Sales freelancers help UK small businesses survive recession
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Marketing News: SERIF'S WEBPLUS X4 MEANS BUSINESSES CAN NOW CREATE PROFESSIONAL WEBSITES FAST WITHOUT ANY DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Serif (Europe) Ltd, the UK's leading independent design, publishing and creative software developer, has today released WebPlus X4, a significant upgrade to their award-winning web design software. This software is packed with everything a small or start-up business needs to design outstanding, professional-quality websites – no complicated code, programming, or design experience required. WebPlus X4 is an all-in-one web designer, making it easy and affordable to build stunning interactive and e-commerce-enabled websites using the powerful built-in tools to customise a professionally-designed template or starting from a blank page. Business owners can now create graphics, edit photos, write text, add social media capabilities, set up an online shop, and more, then publish directly to the web.

Marketing News: SERIF’S WEBPLUS X4 MEANS BUSINESSES CAN NOW CREATE PROFESSIONAL WEBSITES FAST WITHOUT ANY DESIGN EXPERIENCE
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Marketing News: Experian report highlights growth potential in SME lending

Experian®, the global information services company, today published a new report highlighting how data, software and analytic capabilities more commonly used in consumer lending environments can help UK retail banks profitably increase lending to the SMEs. According to a new Experian report entitled 'Risk, reward and the SME lending imperative', SMEs offer a huge opportunity to retail banks whilst noting that medium sized firms are seeking to weather the current economic climate by managing for cash and demanding less credit. Experian's report suggests that financial institutions that are able to quickly and cost-effectively assess the risk and reward presented by individual small and micro businesses, and respond rapidly to signs of distress amongst their existing customer base, will be best placed to profitably grow their commercial lending books. Stephen Gildert, SME lending consultant at Experian, comments: "In order to lend profitably to the SME sector, banks need to be able

Marketing News: Experian report highlights growth potential in SME lending
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Marketing News: StrongMail Reveals the Seven Habits of Successful Email Marketing

With companies set to invest heavily in email marketing, marketers need to send messages customers really want and avoid the perils of apathy, annoyance and unpreparedness. A recent report from analyst firm Forrester is predicting that by 2014 companies will spend over £1.2 billion on email marketing [1] in the US alone – an 11% compound annual growth rate. Yet it also predicts that much of this spend will be wasted as messages are targeted inappropriately or not at all. In response to this, StrongMail http://www.strongmail.com has published seven habits of successful email marketing. The company powers email campaigns for the likes of McAfee, WebEx and Ticketmaster, handling millions of messages per week. Image Sam Cece, Chairman & CEO StrongMail.

Marketing News: StrongMail Reveals the Seven Habits of Successful Email Marketing
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Marketing News: THOMSON LOCAL INTRODUCES NEW ONLINE FEATURES

Local business search company Thomson Local has unveiled a raft of new features and functionality to its online site, ThomsonLocal.com The first of the changes sees users given the ability to rate and review local businesses listed on the site via a 5 star voting system. Users can score advertisers against key criteria including value for money, quality, level of service, time taken and also submit comment on the overall impression of the business. Advertisers will be provided with 'rate my work' business cards to give to their customers, directing them to the site in order to build ratings. Further user experience enhancement sees the introduction of Thomson Local Small Ad's, a new classified service for its users and advertisers, after the company entered into partnership with online classified specialist, Oodle.

Marketing News: THOMSON LOCAL INTRODUCES NEW ONLINE FEATURES
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Marketing News: Action Sport Publisher, Factory Media - Unveil a new look site to 2m unique users MPORA.COM

Factory Media has re-launched its action sports website www.mpora.com as it breaks the two million unique users mark. The re-launched site boasts a number of new developments including a new video player to cater for the 1.75 million monthly video streams, improved navigation and more related sports. With the option of a HD player, and the availability in English, French, German and Russian languages, MPORA.com will reach an even larger audience for the summer months.

Marketing News: Action Sport Publisher, Factory Media  -  Unveil a new look site to 2m unique users MPORA.COM
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