need to raise awareness of SME site

[smallbusiness-uk]

Hello all, I am the company director of smallbusiness-uk we are a .org company that has recently revamped our entire site and after careful deliberation we have launched. We are backed by FSB, princes trust, business gateway, psybt and scottish executive, our marketing strategy has been succesful in scotland but has mainly been flyers and leaflet drops, but we aim to run radio advertising and hopefully tv commercials along with local council promotion by the end of the year, but what we need is help promoting ourselves uk-wide.

Our site provides free webspace, free business networking, free sales leads, discounted IT and telecoms, Business finance, grants and accounts and much more. It is completely 100% free and allows for free marketing as well as discounted search engine optimisation, flyers, leaflets and online advertising.
Free business leads
free web page
free business advice and support
free business blogs
free business forums
free franchising tips free directory listing marketing tools and special offers discounted products from companies UK-wide and a whole lot more, we have loads of members in scotland having just started our marketing campaign but we want to raise awareness down south and encourage businesses to promote us, as a big part of the site is the generation of sales leads, free traffic and business promotion, amongst others, therfore the more members we have the better the database of leads and discounted products we can offer our members. We are currently in talks with barclays, virgin media and orange about exclusive offers for our members but you all know how these things can take time, so should be end of june before these are available along wiht the new directory we are building.

Any advice or promotion would be very welcomed and appreciated greatly,
Stephen Purdon, Company Director.

 

[AndyP]

I'm sorry but what utter rubbish. This is nothing more than a blatant use of this forum for self promotion. I hesitate to use the word spam but it isn't far off.

I looked at your site and if that is a revamped site then, frankly, I hate to think what it was like before. And, as for being "backed" by the organisations that you have mentioned, well, we can all display logo images if we choose to. They mean nothing.....where is the link to the endorsements?

If you wish to be taken seriously and treated with some respect then behave like the businessman that you purport to be and not some clown.

 

[deniser]

There's not much there and it still looks as though it is in draft form. I don't think anyone would want to spend any time on the site let alone promote it. You need to add a lot more content before making it public.

 

[smallbusiness-uk]

We are in draft form at present so the services we have on offer at present are skeletal, but i was only trying to increase our membership and add the new features along the way. All feedback is welcome good or bad, the vast amount of content still to be put on the site is huge so it will take a little time, please check it out in a month's time to see the difference.

Stephen.

 

[smallbusiness-uk]

I'm sorry but what utter rubbish. This is nothing more than a blatant use of this forum for self promotion. I hesitate to use the word spam but it isn't far off.

I looked at your site and if that is a revamped site then, frankly, I hate to think what it was like before. And, as for being "backed" by the organisations that you have mentioned, well, we can all display logo images if we choose to. They mean nothing.....where is the link to the endorsements?

If you wish to be taken seriously and treated with some respect then behave like the businessman that you purport to be and not some clown.

the site is being revamped at present still a month off but not too far now, it is not a nice thing to walk into a forum and be shot down almost immediately, hence the title how do i raise awareness, that isn't self-promotion it is asking how do i raise awareness of the site above when it is completed?

Stephen

 

[AndyP]

Stephen

You said:

.....we are a .org company that has recently revamped our entire site....

That does not say what you are now suggesting that you said. You used your original post as nothing more than an advertisement for your site and services.

Here's some advice. Don't lie. We are not stupid. You are not "backed" by the organisations that you have previously mentioned, you are "members of" at best and even that may be questionable given that none of your logos link to anything.

Here's a bit more advice. Behave with honour and dignity and people will be pleased to offer help and advice.

 

[Geoff T]

OP - Stephen - my advice (apart from that useful stuff already suggested) would be to invest £36 of the funding/support you claimed to have in your OP in full membership on this forum, you could then get a website review done by the experts...

And if you think you've had it tough thus far!... try it - I dare you!

Cheapest web review you'll ever get - for the lowest cost...

 

[smallbusiness-uk]

Hi Geoff I am currently changing the site but the membership here will be purchased, like I said to Andy all feedback is welcome, so I'll wait till everything is ironed out.

Just to clarify any confusion also:

We are members of FSB.
We ARE backed by The Prince's Trust as a small business support publication.
Prince's Trust are a registered charity as you know, we need to make our own money like everyone else they are not going to throw anything at us, but they will be promoting us when we give the go-ahead within their own channels, I was looking to raise awareness as this is a few month's off before their regional managers become involved.

Thought I would clarify, thanks for the advice like i said all appreciated.

 

[Geoff T]

Hi Geoff I am currently changing the site but the membership here will be purchased, like I said to Andy all feedback is welcome, so I'll wait till everything is ironed out.

Just to clarify any confusion also:

We are members of FSB.
We ARE backed by The Prince's Trust as a small business support publication.
Prince's Trust are a registered charity as you know, we need to make our own money like everyone else they are not going to throw anything at us, but they will be promoting us when we give the go-ahead within their own channels, I was looking to raise awareness as this is a few month's off before their regional managers become involved.

Thought I would clarify, thanks for the advice like i said all appreciated.

Not doubting you myself (won't cost me owt either way!), but nice to see you've got the *wotsits* to answer the gainsayers...

Best of luck, and please do let us know when you've got a "walkin, talkin" site up...

 

[smallbusiness-uk]

Not doubting you myself (won't cost me owt either way!), but nice to see you've got the *wotsits* to answer the gainsayers...

Best of luck, and please do let us know when you've got a "walkin, talkin" site up...

thanks geoff appreciated, good that there are decent people on here.

 

[Geoff T]

no probs - good luck...

 

[ethical PR]

Sounds like you need to put together a PR/marketing plan for online and offline to reach your target audiences.

If you are unsure of where to start try Business Link, it has lots of free information you can download on how to put together a plan and guides on various aspects of PR and marketing.

Also free courses you can attend.

And you can try Marketing Donut.