“Hey, Google! Do this, do that”, at first glance this seems like a bit of fun at home or in the office, but voice search is becoming increasing important for your business to consider with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

As of late last year, there are a reported 33 million users using voice search bots, whether it is Siri on the iPhone, other assistants on smartphones or devices like Google Home or Amazon Echo. 

With these numbers growing year on year, advancement in smart technology, Comscore predicts 50% of all searches with be carried out using voice search, with 20% of these without a screen.

So, what does this mean for your business?

Your business needs to keep up with the times and prepare for this, with users going away from traditional search to voice search consider how your website will be found via voice. 

Things to consider include:

Aiming for position zero: Something that featured heavily in a recent blog we posted on ‘Featured Snippets’, Google Home & Google Assistant read these out first.

Consider what questions your customers commonly ask and pop up that relate to your core products & services and build content around this. But where traditional SEO in the past relies heavily on keywords & content, simply answer the question.

Keep the answers concise, conversational, almost to the point where it comes across conversational.

Perfecting your local SEO: 39% of voice search users are looking for businesses information, so ensure your Google My Business listing is optimised and complete. Complete your profile so when a user asks to find local businesses your business appears at the top.

Verify and authenticate your business on things such as Google Maps & Google My Business. Little things like a fully completed listing with store times, services and a bit about what you do go a long way to helping you achieve voice search success.

For example, when a customer asks, ‘where can I find t-shirt printing in London?’, ‘what time does the nearest printers shut?’, ‘where is my nearest printer?’, these little things will help your business get found using voice search.

On-page content: Steering away from traditional SEO where content is built around keywords and lots of content creation, content that will be found using voice should be concise, grammatical and answer the question appropriately. It should reflect how you might engage with another user and not a Google bot.

Focus on providing text that your customer may find useful and helpful, things like FAQs, help with print & embroidery, they want the answers and they want them within seconds. On average, each user will not listen to an answer for voice search over 15 seconds, you have that amount of time to get your point across to the customer – its all about “meeting the information needs of the customer”.

Important: There is still room for traditional SEO, do not go rushing to your website deleting pages of content. Just consider if this is authentic content, useful for the user and helps your customer with whatever their query might be.

The factors mentioned in this article also aide traditional SEO, things like writing content in a naturally, engaging and conversational way, optimising local search etc will all help your website get found online and visible in Googles SERPs. 

Email Marketing forms a crucial part of any businesses online marketing. A way to reach your existing customer database and win new business, it is one of the simpler forms of online marketing that many small businesses are missing out on.

Optimising your email campaign is the difference between your email being a resounding success winning business and being sent straight to the junk folder. 


Below are some of our top tips to help get your business started with its email campaigns:

Focus on the subject line. The subject line is the most important thing to consider, this is the first thing the recipient reads and is make or break for whether they open your email or chuck it straight in the junk folder. First things first it needs to be eye catching, test out your email subject lines and analyse which achieves the highest open/action rate.

Strive for inbox placement. A difficult one to measure, but not all email campaigns need to be actioned straight away, they just need to leave a lasting impression on readers. Just focus on the brand, the core product and services not super salesy jargon – you don’t want a reader to think it is spam and treat your email like junk.

Ensure the email is mobile optimized. Most email software will provide a mobile view of your email, ensure that it can be optimised for any device. Approximately 65% of emails are read on a smartphone/tablet (Marketing Land, 2017) so ensure your email looks the part on any device.

Personalise where possible. Use tags to deliver a personalised message to your customer, use their name, business name etc to give an email a more personal feel. People know emails are being sent to thousands at a time, but you don’t want to make them feel like another name of your mailing list. This encourages better engagement with readers!

Segment your email database. To go one step further and provide an even more personalised touch segment your database. Funnel down your customers and sort them by interests/industries etc into small niche mailing lists and send them a highly personalised email specific to their niche. For example, don’t just send your customers emails about workwear, filter the type of business and got a bit further.

Reduce text and optimize call to action. As much as Marketers hate it, people won’t spend a lot of time reading your email once opened – consumers decided within a split second if it is of interest or not. Be short, sharp & concise with any text to grab any attention. Focus on providing clickable calls to actions and leading them to enquire, order etc.

Make social sharing available. A simple but very over-looked one, ensure your email can be shared using Social Media buttons. Many email providers make this a simple click of the button. This helps grow the reach of any campaign you might send further than your customer database and reach potential new leads. Provide clear share buttons for your readers to engage with!

Google snippets give you instant answers to your queries. Snippets and cards are images, ratings, reviews and so on that enhance a search engine result page (SERPs). 

Rich search results highlight key information and help search engines gain an understanding the page and its purpose. Implementing rich search results such as cards and snippets can help your website stand out from your competitors.

It requires a more astute developer to tag things such as corporate logo, contact details, social media profiles, carousels and breadcrumb navigation. Pretty much anything can be tagged to potentially appear as a rich search result, from blogs & news articles to events, business details and product information.


So why consider this?

It is a lot more difficult technically behind the scenes, but the results are huge. Rich searches appear right at the top of a SERP, in the coveted ZERO position above organic results. So even if you are not ranking organically, it gives you a fighting chance to get seen on Google.

The answers are detailed, displayed in a box and often more eye catching than a traditional search result and due to their eye-catching nature often have a higher click thru rate (which Google can only consider a good thing!)

Voice Command Searches

The benefit of rich results is also evident as the results work seamlessly with devices such as Google Home & Siri, so if a consumer is searching on the move and asks relevant questions searching for goods, rich snippets are played rather than a whole page of results. With an increase in voice search this can only be an advantage for businesses.

How to get the most from rich snippets?

Building and optimising your site around keyword snippets will increase your organic ranking, increase your websites traffic and decrease your websites bounce rate.

To get your business going with rich searches, here are a few basic tips:

  • Provide partial answers and encourage click through. Ranking for a rich result is one thing but making sure it does not display everything is another. Ensure it displays just enough to encourage users to visit your website.
  • Make sure users get an awesome user-experience (UX). Ensure your website is optimised, up to date with information, details and provides customers a user-friendly experience on-site.
  • Embrace organic practices. To rank well and for rich results a website first and foremost must follow Googles SEO guidelines and best practices.
  • Write in a natural style. Snippets rely on quality well written content, not content focused purely on ranking. Write in a conversational style, almost like you are talking to a customer. Once this is done keep on top of it and always freshen it up every few months.
  • Work with a credible company. Web design companies often promise the world, do your research and work with the right company for your business. Outline why you want your site built in such a way to get found for rich snippets and many will be excited to work on such an interesting project!

Content Marketing is probably something your business has practiced over the years without really knowing it. Creating valuable, relevant and interesting content to your audience is Content Marketing in a nutshell.

Why Does Your Business Needs Content Marketing?

There are numerous advantages to undertaking Content Marketing and building it into your businesses strategy. Engaging customers has a profound effect on several areas such as increasing sales, improving customer retention and customer acquisition to name a few. In theory it sounds like a lot of Marketing jargon, but simplified just tell your story, build your brand, its values and write about what makes your business and its services so skilful and important.


Here are a few simple steps to get you on your way to Content Marketing success:

Undertake a review: In some way or another, your business has produced content. Simply review it, consider things like your website, Social Media and any other content you produce. Identify areas of strength, weaknesses and possible areas to address. It also gives you the opportunity to examine the landscape see what competitors are doing and how their customers are reacting to their content. 

Consider & plan what type of content you will use: There are many types of content to consider using – Social Media, Blogs, Infographics, Videos, eBooks to name but a few. They all have different advantages & dis-advantages when planning your content. There are things to consider such as:

  • Who is your target audience?
  • What is the purpose and aim of the content?
  • What type of medium are they likely to engage with?
  • What medium fits with the resources you have available?
  • Will you be able to produce content on these to time and on budget?
Use Google Keyword Planner: Now you have an idea of what type of content you are going to produce, the creative juices will be flowing with mind maps and campaign ideas. Validate your ideas using a keyword tool, there are 100s of out there, but Google Keyword Planner is probably the most efficient. This will give you an idea of what your audience are physically searching for, build content around these key terms which will also aide your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.

Pick the right channel for your business: Consider what platform to use for content efforts, different platforms require distinct types of content. As we have touched on in previous articles, they all have their own distinct ways and features that will be of use for your business. The key is to be engaging across all channels, you want customers & leads to see you as interesting, someone they can trust and build a working relationship with. Communicating this on your website, through email campaigns, Social Media, Blogging is a challenge. As an example, posting content via Social Media, LinkedIn is hugely B2B where you are likely to be reaching out to decision markers, ths requires a more formal approach than that of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat etc.

 Aim for ‘evergreen’: This is the ultimate goal for Content Marketers. Creating updated content repeatedly is a challenge, sometimes the ideas may run out or you may not have time with whatever else might be going on. Evergreen content can be used for a sustained period, it’s a ‘timeless’ piece and something that will always be of interest to your customers. Producing this will also help drive traffic and raise brand awareness over a sustained period of time.

LinkedIn is the largest online professional Social Media with a global audience of over 450m. A grown-up version of Social Media, professional, slick, modern and you should be part of it too! The ideal social sales tool for you and your business… if you are not on there; you and your business are missing out on the largest B2B networking and one of the largest sales opportunities to high-value customers.

Of course it is a bit different from your conventional day to day Social Media, your Facebook, Twitter and so on so you have to be a bit cuter on how you communicate on there. Its professional socialising, something you do day to day as a business owner but online. Just sell your business, your brand and personality and reap the rewards.

The potential for LinkedIn in the garment decoration is huge. Put simply, creating branded clothing you are always looking for the large value order or the next big contract. The large business clients more often than not account for a large chunk of most garment decorator’s turnover. So it is a bit of a no brainer - LinkedIn gives you a unique chance to create and win these larger orders and opportunities for your business.

Let’s of course not forget the existing customers, connect with these and ‘Network’, give yourself more of a chance of winning the repeat order. Existing customers also have the power to endorse you and refer you to their connections, another potential way of winning business with LinkedIn.

And as if it sounds too good to be true, it just keeps getting better…

In a nutshell, LinkedIn is used by both professionals individually (Managing Directors, Marketing Executives, Business Owners and so on) and businesses themselves. LinkedIn gives you two shots at selling on their site essentially, whether you register as an individual and interact with like-minded people who you think could be your next big potential customers or whether you set up a LinkedIn company page to interact directly with other businesses.

It could not be easier! Set up your profile, write about you, your business and how good you are at what you do and how your products are high-quality then start connecting. LinkedIn allows you to search for both businesses and their workers by location – so get chatting today! Introduce yourself, build up a professional online connection and hopefully when these businesses need branded clothing or similar they know where to go, your business will be the first port of call.


Here are a few little hints & tips to help you on your way to LinkedIn success:

  • Optimise Your Profile: Complete every aspect of your profile. Sell your business, your skills, your quality products and everything about how you can help other businesses. Create engaging pictures, infographics and so on to force someone to want to find out more and connect with you.
  • Find Your Audience: The search function allows you to search by both job title and location. Think to yourself garment decorators, what’s the title of the person I’m going to sell X amount of goods too? Marketing workers, brand workers, managing directors, human resource workers, target as many as possible and aim to build a connection.
  • Join LinkedIn Groups: There are a whole host of groups for business owners to join, industry specific, location specific, interest specific, just general business groups and much more. Join these and interact with people who may be interested in what your garment decorating business has to offer and give yourself more chance of winning that large B2B order.
  • Earn Referrals: Earn some LinkedIn kudos with referrals. This is where existing connections can endorse you your skills and leave reviews giving your profile a little extra touch. Of course the more endorsements and quality reviews you have, the better – why would people who see your page go elsewhere when they see how good a job your business does for others.

With these little bits of advice, your business should reap the rewards of using LinkedIn. Now you have won the order – the next step is retaining them! 

Offer them a USP and high quality experience, the eTrader sites allow customers to have their own public or private shop full of their goods. Professional and simple to use, customers can be checked out in just a few clicks and in a matter of moments.

For more information on how we are helping the garment decoration industry online don’t hesitate to email info@etraderwebsites.co.uk or give us a call on 029 20741 633 today.

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