7th Clinic, IT Solutions for Marketing Problems - 30th April 2007

Minutes

IT in the Salon was the theme for our April Clinic. Once again, the attendees were able to gain a few pearls of wisdom from our guest speaker; Anja Glauch from Tetridia. We chose the theme because making the most of technology is a must in today’s highly competitive market. It is however surprising, the amount of Businesses that do not use computer technology to its full potential. The attendees of the Clinic demonstrated this, ranging from the Technology savvy to the Technology novice.

Anja gave an excellent presentation on how to increase sales using the Internet and Online Marketing. Tetridia is a Web Solutions and Search Engine Marketing Company which was established by Anja 3 years ago. Throughout the evening, Anja showed the attendees how to turn their Website into an active Marketing tool. We learnt about the latest technologies on the Web in an easy to digest way. It can sometimes be an intimidating field, with confusion over acronyms and technical jargon and Anja effectively avoided this through careful explanation.

Throughout the evening we discussed:

• Starting Points for Building a Website:
- What is the Purpose of your Website? E-commerce? Information? Appointment Booking? Branding/Visibility?
- How to you define and Describe your Target Audience?

• Marketing Channels – How to let people know about your Website.
- Offline – Flyer, Poster, Magazines, Radio, Direct Mailing
- Online – Email Marketing, Article Marketing, Directories, Search Engine Marketing

• The importance of Keyword/Keyphrase research – has to be relevant to your Business otherwise you will not attract your target market.

• Search Engine Optimisation – how to optimise your website so Search Engines can easily find the content.

• Search Engine Marketing – can give a good start to your services. To bring your message across and make your website easier to find for your specific target audience you need to apply the following:
- Search Engine Registration
- Link Building Campaigns
- Paid Advertising.

The evening was extremely enjoyable and sparked a lively group discussion. It was also an excellent opportunity for the Salon Owners/Managers to network with each other.

For more information about Website Marketing, visit www.tetridia.com