Further Search Marketing - News

Another creative writer joins SEO team.

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:20:22 GMT

Emily Buchanan has just joined Further's ever expanding search team. Although she is officially known as an 'SEO Consultant', Emily definitely sits on the content creation side of the fence, working closely with Further's more technical SEO pros.

Like so many other former graduates of the UEA's internationally-renowned Creative Writing School, Emily moved to Norwich from Kent to pursue her studies and never wanted to leave. Maybe her parents weren't delighted at her decision, but we certainly are, as she is an excellent writer and is already creating innovative new angles to extend the visibility and increase the rankings of Further's client list.

Outside of work Emily writes her own blog, is a frustrated novelist and likes spending weekends trawling antiques fairs with her musician boyfriend.

Welcome Emily, great to have you with us.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

A gong for Europe?

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:33:38 GMT

Great news for a Monday morning! The finalists for the 2012 European Search Awards have just been announced - and we're a touch more than a little excited to hear that we have gained no less than three nominations.

As the title suggests, the awards see the cream of UK agencies taking on the very best from across Europe, to find out who will be crowned as 'Champions of Europe' across 17 SEO, PPC and digital marketing categories.

The awards ceremony, held in association with Manual Link Building, SEMPO, SEOhosting and SAScon will take place on the evening of Thursday 5 July 2012 at the NH Barbizon Palace in Amsterdam.

Further has two nominations in the 'Best Search Campaign -Travel' category for clients Economy Car Hire and Richardsons Boating Holidays, with the Richardsons Boating holidays also being shortlisted for the 'Best Search Campaign- Leisure' award.

Further MD John Thew says: “I’m absolutely delighted that our success in online marketing continues to be recognised. We were thrilled to be crowned the best agency in the UK for the Travel and Leisure industries last year – but to be the best in Europe would be something else! Let’s hope the judges are impressed by our standards of work, the results we achieved and the real value for money we provided."

Can we do a 'Chelsea' and become Champs of Europe? Watch this space.

Take a look at the full shortlist of Finalists.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Walking Further for charity

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:27:20 GMT

Next month will see the Further Team is embark on a 50-mile walk in 24 hours in aid of Community Sports Foundation’s Sports Appeal. It helps provide activities that help disabled people keep active, learn new skills, socialise and increase their independence.

The “Coastal Challenge Walk”, a 47-mile slog from Hunstanton to Cromer, will see the Further team trek across the North Norfolk Coast in under 24 hours. Starting at 11am on 22nd June in Hunstanton, members of Team Further will walk across the coast, taking in Burnham Deepdale, Wells, Morston and Cley – finishing in Cromer 24 hours later.

Our walk, which is in aid of the Community Foundation’s Sporting Life Appeal, will help us raise crucial funds to help provide day centre services, coaching and fun activities for people to help increase their skills and confidence.

We’re looking forward to the walk. With no sleep and only our determination to guide us we just hope it’s not Further than we thought!

To find out more about the good work that the Community Sports Foundation does, please see its website.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further welcomes new receptionist Ayesha!

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:13:49 GMT

Further is delighted to announce that our new receptionist has arrived, and is settling in well into her role here. UEA graduate Ayesha Bailey is enjoying her second week with us, and you’ve probably already spoken to her on the phone, so we thought we’d reveal a little more about her.

Ayesha studied American and English Literature whilst she was at UEA, and after she graduated, she worked temporarily in fashion retail. She’s also had not one, but two PR internships, working for MHP Communications in London and Media Jems in Norwich. As if these credentials weren’t impressive enough, Ayesha’s also worked as a Production Co-ordinator at Archant and PR Admin assistant at Saffron Housing Trust.

Ayesha’s interest in the receptionist role was piqued after she saw that the job would offer her the chance to be responsible for multiple projects, to be involved with a dynamic, rapidly-growing company and to learn more about the diverse world of online marketing. (Not to mention a chance to use her excellent organisational skills!) “I really enjoy working with Further’s clients, they’re lovely!” she smiles. “I’m also really enjoying working across numerous projects, and meeting new people. No two days are the same.”

In her spare time, Ayesha loves to socialise with friends, watch films (mainly comedies), visit local restaurants, shop, and try new things! She’s a huge fan of sour/fizzy sweets, theme parks, The Great Gatsby, True Blood and American reality shows.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further. Now selling new cars!

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:48:45 GMT

Further's VW campaign results in 94 car sales and a 181% Return on Investment (ROI) for the region's premier motor dealership.

In recent years, selling new cars has not been an easy task. The current climate hardly makes it any easier.

So we were thrilled to hear the results of a recent online campaign for the region’s premier motor group, Robinsons, which saw new VWs flying off the forecourts of Robinsons VW.

Tasked by Robinsons to drive home the message that the main dealer offered excellent value for money compared to its rivals, our online work was directly responsible for 94 direct car sales, while an uplift in telephone enquiries, test drives and showroom visits during the period will have undoubtedly played some part in the many more showroom sales experienced (if only we could have tracked them all!).

We started the campaign by creating a dedicated domain (www.volkswagenforless.co.uk) and a microsite to demonstrate the savings over rival vehicles. These sites also combined downloadable ‘best price guarantee’ vouchers, model-specific brochures and contact form requests with the aim of giving car owners who wouldn’t normally consider a Volkswagen a nudge towards their local Robinson’s showroom.

The mini four-month campaign delivered an ROI for Robinsons of some 181%, a stat which was particularly pleasing when you consider it included the complete design, content creation and build of the site in addition to the online marketing activity itself.

Andrew Bracking, Brand Manager at Robinsons VW said: “Further understood perfectly what we were looking to achieve. They created an innovative strategy and delivered it on time and on budget with some very pleasing results. We are delighted with the response and the sales directly from the campaign."

On the basis of this performance, Further has now been tasked with a similar brief for Robinsons Audi. We'll keep you posted as to whether we beat 0-94 in 16 weeks!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

SubscriptionSave passes £1m revenue!

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:30:55 GMT

It's always rewarding when a new innovation really comes off for a client - so the announcement that SubscriptionSave.co.uk had reached the £1m landmark meant a great deal to the Further team.

Working in close partnership with members of the client team, SubscriptionSave.co.uk was created and developed as an experiment to help the client to lower the cost of magazine subscriptions and trials for their wide-ranging portfolio, which includes market-leading glossy titles in the Lifestyle, Travel, Leisure and Specilaist Hobbies sectors.

The new brand, also created by Further, had to launch from a standing start against the likes of the long-standing and market-dominant multi-publisher subscription portals such as magazine-group and letssubscribe - where the client's own titles had previously been sold.

Through a co-ordinated strategy of Further's online marketing and the client's in-title advertising, this first single-publisher subs platform was launched just 23 months ago. Despite being a brand new domain, the marketing got off to a very positive start and within 12 months of going live the site had taken over 16,410 new orders at a significantly lower cost per acquisition than other portals and advertising were providing.

Despite the economic climate in which consumers have cut back on non-essential spending, progress has continued, culminating in the great news just announced as the site passed the £1m revenue mark.

Paul Upton, Web Manager on SubscriptionSave.co.uk was thrilled by the way in which the whole project has come together and worked. "Further have helped us to achieve some fantastic results over the last two years on SubscriptionSave.co.uk", he comments. "Their expertise in both search and user-centric design and development has enabled us to continuously grow both traffic and sales."

A new dedicated SubscriptionSave.co.uk/mobile site was launched only last month to target new audiences and keep up the sales momentum.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Amy and Sarah have entered the building..

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:15:48 GMT

Further welcomes new Paid Search Manager and Business Development Manager.

Last week we welcomed our two latest recruits, Amy Beck and Sarah Cogman to the Old Church.  

Amy comes to us having relocated from Jersey, where she was Marketing Manager for global legal and fiduciary firm Appleby. A psychology graduate and Associate member of the CIM, Amy also worked agency side with London agency, Iris, where she was Senior Account Manager on T-Mobile, Wonderbra and the Disney Channel. Amy takes over the responsibility for business development within Further as the company continues its expansion.

Sarah, a BA (Hons) graduate with an MSC in marketing, takes up the post of Paid Search Manager looking after the company’s growing roster of PPC clients, having joined from digital agency 20/20, where she looked after clients such as Oxfam, Hoseasons, John Frieda, Long Tall Sally and Virgin Vie.

 So yes, the Old Church is getting very full, but it’s an exciting time for Sarah and Amy to be joining Further with so much planned for 2012. When you next visit us, please do hunt them down and say ‘hello’!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Furthering careers at Langley

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:29:29 GMT

Further has given hundreds of students from Norfolk’s Langley School a taste of digital marketing and what it takes to get into the industry at a bustling careers fair.

Students who attended the event learnt all about the aspects of web-based marketing - from the ins and outs of developing a website, to search engine optimisation and successful social media management.

Further was on hand to talk to the enthusiastic youngsters about career opportunities in the digital marketing industry, as well as give advice which courses to study at GCSE and A-level. A total of 25 exhibitors had stalls at the event, with some of the big names joining Further including Archant, Barclays, the Police, Army, Navy, Fire Service, KLM Engineering, Aviva, Easton College and Leathes Prior.

Further’s Account Manager Amy Smith said: “This was the first careers event we’ve attended and it was refreshing to see so many young people interested in a career in the web. With so many of the students having their own blogs, websites and social media accounts they were really keen to know how they could turn their passion into a living.”

Head of Careers at the Langley School Warren Baker said: "The students got so much from the day through speaking to the exhibitors and I was so impressed by the enthusiasm they showed - especially years 8 and 9. It was without doubt the most successful careers fair we've had to date and it will be tough to top it - I'll definitely be asking Further to attend next year."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Fresh new roles here at Further

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:55:59 GMT

It's been a brisk start to 2012 here at Further - and we are now on the look-out for more excellent people to fill two key roles here at our Norwich office.

For the marketing department, we're after another SEO Consultant, a great writer with the ability to create great content, preferably with SEO experience. Meanwhile, at the front of house, we'd love to find a Receptionist who wants to take ownership of making clients and callers feel special, as well as taking pride in those normal office duties.

If you know anyone who may fit the bill for either, then please send them to our Careers page as soon as possible.

Much appreciated.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further's reaction to the Wikipedia blackout

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:46:40 GMT

Today marks a day that most of us will remember for quite a while - Wikipedia has voluntarily shut down for 24 hours in a protest against internet piracy laws in the United States.

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, are laws which are going before the U.S. Congress. These acts are designed to prevent people from making music, film, television shows and eBooks available free of charge. However, it has been argued that they could wield much more power, and amount to an attempt to control and censor the internet - thereby limiting freedom of expression.

The Wikimedia Foundation opposes these potential new laws and has spoken out in its support on the blackout. 'If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open internet, and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States,' it said.

Like many companies that rely upon finding accurate, comprehensible information quickly and easily, Further has a firm response to the idea of SOPA and PIPA being brought before Congress.

Phil Howard, a developer at Further, is fully supportive of the stance that Wikipedia has taken against SOPA. Here, he outlines his reasons why:

"Wikipedia's stance is borne out of a superior technical knowledge and understanding to that demonstrated by the supporters and authors of SOPA, and similarly misguided acts such as PROTECT IP. Furthermore it's a stance in keeping with America's First Amendment, which protects the freedom of speech that acts like SOPA are in serious danger of eroding. Whilst we do not enjoy such constitutionally-guaranteed freedom in the UK, we are, in respect to the internet, almost as much under the protection of the US First Amendment as any US Citizen.

"The mere act of linking to pirated material, not committing any crime of piracy in and of itself, should be protected like any other speech. Not because sites profiting directly from these links aren't in the wrong, but because branding something as whimsical as "linking" a crime could have very serious repercussions to many perfectly legitimate or innocent actions - opening many website operators, hosting companies, search engines and more up to deeper uncertainty and even the danger of prosecution. Wikipedia's stance is not in support of piracy, but is against misguided, scattergun attempts to curb it.

Why people who aren't in the US should take note:

A common argument against Wikipedia's stance is that taking a global business offline for a day to protest a "local" issue is inherently wrong. However, to believe that SOPA, and similar acts, won't have a long-term affect on people throughout the entire world is short-sighted.

As an example, only recently a British student, Mr O'Dwyer, accused merely of linking to "pirated" material, has been extradited to the US in order to face trial for actions which aren't even considered a crime in the UK. He is in danger of facing up to 10 years in prison. Clearly, we're all in very real danger of having the extradition treaty abused in order to enforce a foreign countries poorly thought out laws upon us.

What next? The act of 'censoring' the internet - and why it doesn't work:

There are two facets to censorship on the internet. The first is that it doesn't work. One of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation is quoted almost ten years ago in TIME magazine as stating: "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

This is a very relevant statement. The internet is not a single, policeable network. But an almost unfathomable, mind-bogglingly complex cluster of servers and clients spread across the entire globe. Attempts to quash piracy happening through the regular "DNS" or "Website Domain Name" system we're currently all familiar with, will simply result in pirate activities being pushed deeper underground, to more technically complex, distributed and secure channels.

As a recent example; once upon a time most piracy simply involved hitting a website and directly downloading an illicit file. The crime, in this situation, was easy to pinpoint - the servers literally contained gigabytes of pirated material, and if they were made remotely public would be quashed in no time at all. Now we have Torrents. A distributed method of file sharing where no single server contains the pirated material, but rather it's distributed across thousands of home computers across the globe. A "torrent file" then simply contains a set of links to servers which keep an eye on all these home computers, and put them in touch with each other so that a single user can eventually grab all the pieces of a pirated film, piece of software or song from these thousands of other end users.

Now the fight is against websites which provide these "torrent files" which aren't pirated content in and of themselves. They're links to servers which link to the content. Yes… it's that abstracted. The fight is against websites which link to files which link to servers which link to pirated material.

And then there are search engines. We all know that Google links to websites, and some of these websites link to files which link to servers which link to pirated material. Therefore proponents of SOPA believe that Google should have a responsibility to stop these links, which are ridiculously distanced from pirated material. The net result, then, will be that alternate search engines will crop up, or even something so far as an "alternate internet" piggybacking on the current internet and distributed to such an extent that it's impossible to police, control or, sometimes, even find.

The second facet is that innocent users will get caught in the crossfire. Piracy will not stop under the draconian policing of acts like SOPA. But in the crossfire of censorship, you might find your perfectly innocuous links to an outwardly innocent looking file, video or website could get you in hot water. Ultimately the only people who will suffer as a result from SOPA will be those of us who either aren't in the wrong, don't even know we were in the wrong, or were simply trying to exercise our rights to "Fair Use", satire, parody, or the production of tutorials, reviews or other fairly common online practises. And, again, if you think that doesn't affect you outside the USA, you're very much mistaken.

Click here to visit Further's Google+ page

Click here to follow Phil Howard on Twitter

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

We wished you a Tacky Christmas...And you obliged!

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:07:34 GMT

The hunt to find the world’s tackiest Christmas decorations is over and it’s official (although hardly surprising)…the offending item can be found in the good ol’ US of A.

Receiving a massive 71 votes and taking home the spoils, a scary-looking festive troll has been crowned the winner of Further’s Tacky Christmas competition - a celebration of the gaudy, the garish and the downright gruesome. Discovered and submitted by American resident Claudia, a £50 Amazon voucher (or $78) is now winging its way across the pond.

Although Claudia’s troll ran away with the title, we received a number of other eye-watering pictures - Santa and Mrs Claus in a hot-tub, meerkats in Santa hats and illuminated reindeer were just a few of the abominations submitted. Thank you to everyone who got involved and uploaded their tat, you certainly raised a smile here in the Further office!

The Tacky Christmas competition was our way of donating to charity while having a bit of festive fun at the same time. We chose to support the charity CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) by donating 50p for each photo uploaded and 5p for each ‘Like’ our Facebook profile received. Although we didn’t reach our target of 1,000 photos, we’ll still be donating £500 to CALM to help them continue their good work in raising awareness of male suicide.

Further's Managing Director John Thew says: "I thought my meerkats (well, my local garden centre's) were in with a chance, but Claudia's troll was a worthy winner and I'm absolutely delighted we're donating £500 to CALM. Thank you to everyone who got involved – we hope our competition raised a smile!”

Jane Powell, CALM's Founder says: "Tacky Christmas was a great online piece of fun which has raised money for our helpline and raised our spirits too. It's a fantastic Christmas present for CALM - thanks to everyone at Further and all those who took part."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Baddiel's on board...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:55:55 GMT

Tacky Christmas is taking off in a big way - comedian and broadcaster David Baddiel, who is a patron of CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), a charity which aims to prevent suicide in young men, has given our campaign the thumbs-up!

The presenter, who has admitted to suffering from severe depression in the past, supports Further’s novel charity effort: “All power to Further's ‘Tacky Christmas’ competition," he says. "I very much hope that people who are depressed at this time of year will find that nothing is so bad as a plastic bauble of Santa playing golf."

Voting for the world's tackiest Christmas decorations runs from now until 23rd December, with the owner of the winning photo receiving a £50 Amazon voucher to spend in time for the big day. We'll be donating 5p for every 'Like' we recieve on our page and 50p for every photo submitted to CALM.

To enter our Tacky Christmas competition or vote for photos already submitted and do your bit to help CALM stop suicide, just click here.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Tacky Christmas, everyone!

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:27:56 GMT

You can’t have failed to miss the portly bearded chap who’s been flaunting himself all over our TV screens recently. You know; big white beard, red suit, enjoys sliding down chimneys? Yes, it’s true, folks - Christmas is here again, and here at Further, we’re proud to announce our online Christmas card for 2011. Put your hands together for Tacky Christmas - a celebration of the gaudy, the garish and the (potentially) gruesome.

In association with CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), we’re launching a hunt to find this year’s crassest Christmas decoration. Whether it’s Christmas crockery that makes your eyes water, a desk decoration that should be banned in the name of taste or a reindeer jumper that Worzel Gummidge would shun, we want to see it! This is a cause that spans all areas of modern life - the offending article could be found at work, at home, on a shopping trip or even in a roadsife cafe; we're not fussy! So, simply upload your shining examples of Christmas tat onto Further’s Facebook page, and help support our charitable cause. For every picture uploaded, we’ll donate 50p to CALM, and for every ‘Like’ we receive, we’ll donate 5p.

But the tasteless fun doesn’t end there. You can vote for your favourite picture, and the winner will receive a £50 Amazon voucher. Whether or not this alleviates the shame of being crowned ‘Further’s King/Queen of Tat’ remains to be seen.

Our Managing Director, John Thew, believes that 'Tacky Christmas' fits in perfectly with CALM’s manifesto - and can’t wait to see the pictures of 2011’s tattiest decorations. “Life’s simply too short to be miserable, especially at this time of year,” he says. “We hope that ‘Tacky Christmas’ will not only make people smile by showing off some truly terrible decorations, but it will also raise lots of money for a very worthwhile charity at the same time.”

Our Tacky Christmas competition is open until Friday 23rd December, so let the hunt begin!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further 'grows' back in time...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:32:16 GMT

The Further Family - November 30th, 1911

Sporting a rather fine collection of moustaches, this Edwardian family picture wouldn’t look out of place on the Antiques Roadshow. It is, however, a rather clever ‘Movember’ fake.

Further’s esteemed gentlemen agreed to snub the razor for Movember – the annual moustache-growing effort that raises money to help fight prostate cancer. To mark the final day of their facial-hair frenzy, our Further lads lined up for a team photo and our very own Zak Ireson used his skills in Photoshop to create this fabulous snap.

Mark, Rob, Colin, John, Joe, Phil and Wes might have ended up looking silly, but we salute our team of ‘mo bros’ for showing their charitable side. In total they raised over £570, with money still coming in.

If you’d like to make a donation to our team’s fund, you can do so here.

Congratulations, chaps. Jolly good show!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Captain Cook has left the building

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:58:25 GMT

Last week the team bade farewell to Further stalwart Mark Cook, who is abandoning Natural Search for Marine search, moving lock, stock and barrel to sunny Egypt to become a Scuba Diving Instructor.

Mark was Further's very first search exponent and went on to grow and lead the Further SEO team for the next three and half years. Just over a year ago, Mark decided to go part time sharing his time between Further and flounder, jetting off to Menorca or Egypt as he caught the diving bug.

During this time Mark put his skills to developing a new in-house analytics and reporting tool with Ryan, which is now on the verge of completion and will be provide vital intelligence for future campaigns.

An inspirational presenter and teacher, Mark has made a terrific contribution in his five years at Further. And when that undersea adventure comes to an end and Mark moves back to Norfolk one day? Well, who knows, just maybe the salty sea dog will return to the ever-changing landscape that is online marketing with Further.

A bientot, Marques Cooksteau, we wish you well and envy you greatly!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Three fresh faces to bring new strengths to Further.

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:40:53 GMT

The past week saw three new recruits welcomed aboard the good ship Further.

Journalism graduate and online content specialist Ryan Baxter joins as our latest SEO Consultant. Vicky Anscombe and Liam Tarry, meanwhile, join to take up brand new roles within Further as PR & Social Media Consultants.

Vicky, a graduate in Media and Modern Literature, joins from ITV where she was an Online Journalist responsible for the ITV website, Facebook and Twitter sites. Social media-mad Liam graduated in History before becoming a financial journalist on a number of well known finance titles.

As relevancy, unique content and social marketing come more to the fore in our fast-moving industry, all three will bring new energies, ideas and an extra dimension to the Further team and skillset.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further scores twice at The Emirates.

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:49:57 GMT

Thursday night heralded more celebrations as the Further team scooped not one, but two gongs at the prestigious UK Search Awards 2011 held at the Emirates Stadium in London.

This time it was the company's work for local travel client, Richardsons Boating Holidays, which scooped both the 'Best Use of Search - Travel' and 'Best Use of Search - Leisure' awards, beating off fierce competition from the very biggest and best agencies in the UK search industry.

"Having been crowned the UK's 'Best eCommerce Marketing Agency for 2011' at the eCommerce Excellence Awards only two weeks ago, we simply couldn't have wished for a result like this in our wildest dreams" commented Further's Client Services Director, Louisa Mann.

"We are thrilled because Richardsons are a perfect example of a regional client that has put their trust in us over the past three years and their strategy is continuing to pay off. We are so pleased that Greg Munford and Clive Richardson from the company were able to join us at the event to share in the celebrations."

"Sometimes not having a household name client can work against you, but it was reassuring to hear that the judges felt the standards of work, results achieved and value for money we provided for the campaign are what has set us apart " she continued.

Out of the 14 agency categories awarded, only one other agency took two or more awards on the night.

The judging panel for the awards included Bas van den Beld, Founder of State of Search, Nick Garner, Head of Search at Unibet, Richard Gregory COO at Latitudes and UK Chair of SEMPO, Judith Lewis , Head of Search at Beyond, John Myers of Yahoo and Philip Miles of Google UK.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New site launch for TV, radio and video leaders, JMS.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:30:09 GMT

Some 28 years after it was started by ex-TV broadcaster and presenter, John Mountford, the JMS Group continues to show other TV, video and radio production houses the way forward embracing multi-platform, multi-format communication and bringing new services to its many national and regional clients.

The company chose Further to create a new site which would introduce its dynamic team, give a flavour of its culture and showcase its latest acclaimed work for brands such as Anglian Home Improvements, Disney, Essex and Suffolk Water, Multiyork and Stressless Recliners.

Speaking immediately after the launch of the new site, John Mountford said “Our previous site was suffering under the sheer weight of material we upload, so we asked Further to create a site which would reflect the modernity, personality and diversity of our business. It needed to be large enough to cope with our demands, easy to navigate, intuitive for the new visitor, and a welcome resource for the regular user – and they’ve achieved it all perfectly.”

JMS has also appointed Further to promote the company and its services on the search engines, social media networks and online PR hubs aimed at attracting new business from across the UK and beyond.

As John continues "Investment in multi-media talent and creativity has more recently enabled the business to move into integrated online and broadcast offerings such as online video, internet TV and radio. With voice-over, graphics, music production and TV studio already in-house, who could be better placed and uniquely qualified within the Eastern region to handle multi-format, multi-platform productions? ”

Further Client Services Director, Louisa Mann is confident that JMS' new online strategy will reap rewards for the company. "The in-house marketing team at JMS has been first class to work with to date" she comments "and they really have a good grasp of what is required for success in terms of constantly updating the site, blogging and broadcasting via social media. Not only that, they are truly passionate about it. With a site that has been created for better engagement, social sharing and lead conversion, allied to search activity to drive traffic, we're really looking forward to seeing the results."

"JMS has always been a fabulous company, with unrivalled service levels and products and we are thrilled to be working with them."

Take a look at the site now at www.jms-group.com

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further Seeks Unexpected Growth in November

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:37:42 GMT

The men (and some women) of Further have decided to embark on the time honoured tradition of ‘Movember’. Last year over 100,000 ‘Mo Bros’ and ‘Mo Sistas’ participated in the month long event.

What is Movember you ask?

After a clean shave on the morning of the 1st of November men all over the world have 30 days to grow and create some fantastic moustaches all in the name of raising money and awareness for Testicular and Prostate Cancer. The UK alone last year raised over £10.2 million towards this all too often ‘tucked away’ issue.

A few nuggets about Testicular and Prostate Cancer:
*1 in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime  
* This year 37,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed
* 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime  
* 26% of men are less likely to go the doctor compared to women

You can help support ‘Team Further’ by visiting our team page http://mobro.co/teamfurther, or you can even start one of your own at http://uk.movember.com

During November we'll be reporting, and revealing, the moustache growth progress here on the Further site.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Palmers call on Kylie, Kirstie and Further to drive new eCommerce initiative

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:31:33 GMT

This week sees the launch of a brand new ecommerce initiative for regional independent department store group, Palmers, who, earlier this year selected Further as their new online partner.

While Palmers have been operating in ecommerce for three years now, the company see the new partnership with Further as an opportunity to become a nationally-recognised eCommerce retailer, consolidating a number of niche departmental sites under one umbrella store site at
www.palmerstores.com

The new site forms part of an exciting eCommerce marketing strategy for Palmers, with whom Further will work closely to maximise sales – even to the extent of helping the client to decide which product lines should or should not be promoted.  In addition to the bedroom, bathroom, cookery and housewares items you’d expect to find, celebrity endorsed ranges are already proving to be popular, especially bedlinens by Kylie Minogue and Kirstie Allsopp. Additional departments will continue to be added the site during the next 12 months by Palmers new eCommerce Manager, Emma Sturrock and her team.

As Further MD John Thew commented “now that the site is developed and live, we will be working on ongoing SEO and PPC campaigns – as well as testing and honing the site’s conversion rate - to increase sales. We are delighted that Palmers selected Further and we believe our strategy for Palmers will set a path for a close working relationship and continued growth of the Palmers eCommerce operation.”

The launch of the new Palmers eCommerce site comes at an an exciting time for Further, as we continue to win new brands and gain accolades for our performance for existing clients.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Unfit Wes challenges himself to reach Everest basecamp for children's hospice.

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:17:44 GMT

Further Strategist Wes Penrose recently announced his intention to trek to Everest Basecamp in March of next year.

Once we’d picked ourselves off the floor we discovered that laid-back Wes, who was hardly the most complete or energetic of athletes, was challenging himself to help raise money for one of the region’s most deserving of charities – EACH (East Anglian Children's Hospices).

Since the announcement we have to say Wes has been a changed man, hiking into work daily, instead of taking the bus ; embarking on training walks and even cutting down on his alcohol intake (well, slightly!)

As you’d expect, the Everest trip is extremely expensive, so Wes is looking for as many pledges of support and donations as possible to try and reach his financial target. In conjunction with two friends who are also making the trip, he has also arranged a Charity Ball Fundraiser at Norwich’s Sprowston Manor Hotel on Saturday 12th November.

To find out more about Wes and his adventure, or to purchase Ball tickets (price £40 each) please visit the expedition website www.3unfitguysclimbahill.co.uk

Alternatively, if you feel like making a donation, you can sponsor Wes at http://www.justgiving.com/wesupahill

Any support you can give would be really appreciated. Good luck, Wes.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further crowned Best Marketing Agency 2011

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:06:01 GMT

Pop the corks! Further were crowned the UK’s Best eCommerce Marketing Agency for 2011 earlier this evening at the eCommerce Excellence Awards held at London's Sheraton Park Lane Hotel .

This prestigious awards ceremony saw the cream of the eCommerce arena battling it out across all categories – from John Lewis to M&S, Ocado to Virgin Atlantic, BT to Pizza Express.

“ It’s another great night in Further’s evolution” commented Further’s Director of Strategy, Rob Welsby. “ I’m really pleased because we were being judged on our work and results across multiple clients within the past 12 months – I hope this demonstrates to clients out there that you can get significant ROI from online marketing with the right strategy in place.”

“It shows just how far we have come as an agency in five short years since formation” he continued. “The entire Further team should feel very proud at this achievement. Thanks to all our clients for supporting Further and helping to make achievements like this possible.”

Other award winners on the night included ASOS, John Lewis, Kiddicare and Jessops. For the full list see http://www.ecommerceexpo.co.uk/Content/eCommerce-Award-Winners

We now look forward to the UK Search Awards at The Emirates Stadium on 3^rd November where Further is nominated for two separate awards. Can we do it again?

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further receives double nomination in UK Search Awards

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:10:24 GMT

The industry awards season is certainly upon us.

Less than a month ago the Further team were celebrating their announcement as Finalists in the 'Best Marketing Agency' category at the eCommerce Excellence Awards 2011. Now, this has been followed up with a double nomination in the UK Search Awards 2011.

Whereas the eCommerce Awards nomination was for work across multiple clients, this time it is the Agency's work for Norfolk-based Richardson's Boating Holidays which has been recognised - in both the Best Search Campaign - Leisure and Best Search Campaign - Travel categories .

This is not the first time Further's work for Richardson's has gained national recognition. In 2009, Further's work for them took the Runner-Up prize to Travelex in the NMA Effectiveness Awards.

As Client Services Director, Louisa Mann, points out 'This nomination is very important to us as it demonstrates that the marketing strategy we have defined for Richardson's is continuing to work and, in fact, the client return on spend with Further has been greater in the past 12 months than at any time previously. We are naturally delighted and wish to thank the team at Richardson's for their continuing support of Further as we embark on new campaigns for the client. They are a great client to work with.'

The Awards ceremony , which will take place at The Emirates Stadium on 3rd November, will once again see the Agency come up against the very best names in the UK digital marketing space. Please wish us luck!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Mattressman wins Further-sponsored Award

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:39:26 GMT

The cream of the region's businesses were in attendance at the EDP Business Awards in Norwich on Friday night, proving that business in the Eastern region is indeed in good shape, despite the continuing doom and gloom over the UK and global economy.

Held in association with Archant and Anglian Water, the EDP Business Awards is the blue riband event in the region's business calendar - an event which saw Further take the 'Best New Business' Award back in 2009.

This year we became a sponsor for the first time, of a new award - that of 'Best eCommerce Initiative' - which was created to recognise and publicise best practice in online trading. After a surprisingly large entry for a first time category,the judging team managed to settle on three very strong finalists ; retailers Van Dal Shoes and Mattressman - and innovative eCommerce research software provider ServiceTick.

While all three had differentiating factors which could have seen them walking off with the prize, it was the outstanding all-round online sales and service performance of Mattressman which won the day when the on-stage announcement was made by Further's recently-appointed MD, John Thew. Accepting the award on behalf of Mattressman was its entrepreneurial Founder and Managing Director Andrew Kerry.

After the presentation of ten category awards, the evening was brought to a close with the highlight, the announcement of 'Business of the Year'. The result couldn't have suited us better as it went to one of our clients, Hughes Electrical, who deservedly received a rousing ovation. Well done to Robert Hughes and his team - oh, and thanks for the on-stage plug for Further - much appreciated, Robert!

Award winners on the evening were;

'Denise Anderson (Outstanding Achievement)' Award - Bill Jordan, Jordans Cereals/ Pensthorpe

'Food and Farming' sponsored by Anglia Farmers - Anglia Maltings

'Customer Care' sponsored by Aviva - Wroxham Barns

'Community Impact' sponsored by Norse/BITC - VC Cooke Ltd

'eCommerce Initiative' sponsored by Further - Mattressman

'International Enterprise' sponsored by Grant Thornton - e-Tech Group

'Business Development' sponsored by Howes Percival - Taxassist Accountants

'Environment and Sustainability' sponsored by May Gurney - Heatrae Sadia

'Best New Business' sponsored by UEA Norwich Business School - Create Consulting

'Director of the Year' sponsored by Banner - Blair Ainslie, Seajacks

'Business of the Year' sponsored by Barclays Corporate - Hughes Electrical

Congratulations to Mary Rudd PR, Stewart White, the Production Bureau, Holiday inn Norwich North and Archant for an enjoyable event that was flawlessly organised and presented.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New Vacancies at Further

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:11:27 GMT

With a new MD now firmly in place, a growing reputation within the search industry nationally (oh.. and a number of recent client wins under our belt), Further Search Marketing is planning its next stage phase of expansion.

As a result, the Agency is looking for more excellent people to join the team at our Norwich HQ. The new roles include those of 'PPC Account Manager', 'SEO Consultant', 'Online PR (Media Relations) Consultant' and 'Business Development Manager'.

Each of the roles are fully explained on the 'Careers' section of the company's website and offer excellent opportunities to join Further at a very exciting time in its development.

If you know of anyone who would suit any of the roles, please point them to the site at http://www.further.co.uk/careers.aspx

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further shortlisted for 'Best eCommerce Marketing Agency' Award

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:01:32 GMT

Great news for Further as the national 'Ecommerce Awards for Excellence' Finalists were announced last week.

As clients of Further are well aware, we pride ourselves on creating the best possible ROI for our clients - and what better way to demonstrate this than on our ever-increasing list of eCommerce clients, where everything we do can be measured in pound notes, rather than just rankings.

It is the calibre of these results, across a number of key clients, that has now helped Further to be nominated as one of only two finalists in the prestigious 'Best eCommerce Marketing Agency' for the 'eCommerce Awards for Excellence 2011'.

The Winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane in London on Tuesday 11th October, so please keep your fingers crossed for us!

As Further co-Founder Steve Jaggard points out ' this is quite an achievement for the agency - and a great way to show that we really do practice what we preach in terms of results for clients. For some clients we are showing upwards of a 6,000% return on spend with us and significant year-on-year increases in sales, visitor numbers and brand awareness from our work. I'm just delighted this has been recognised by the judges.'

Last year's winners at the event, which is organised in association with the Interactive Media in Retail Group ( IMRG), included M&S, ASOS, eBay, B&Q and Wiggle.

You can find out more details on the awards and other finalists for 2011 at www.ecommerceexpo.co.uk/Content/eCommerce-Award-Finalists/11/

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Strategy, site, search and social for FYFO!  

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:22:22 GMT

  1st August saw the launch of a new online fashion retailer offering more than sixty well known brands for adults, teens and children.

FYFO (Fuel Your Fashion Online) is the brainchild of former Computer Science graduate Martin Lott and former Economics graduate Monica Lott, a couple who only four years ago were selling discount shoes on eBay and amazon as a part-time pastime from home.

Over £1.8m worth of sales and two large distribution warehouses later, they decided it was time to move into full ecommerce. They needed a new brand, a site, a strategy and the online marketing to grow awareness and drive traffic. After advice and recommendation from regional support network, N.A.M.E, Further was appointed to manage the entire project.

As Amy Smith, Further’s Account Manager on FYFO explains “Monica and Martin’s story is a remarkable one. They have such passion for what they are doing and have all the ingredients needed to see the new ecommerce store thrive. Not only are they looking sell brands at affordable prices, but with a service level that is simply unrivalled in their market place. They have learned a great deal about what customers demand by selling online over the past four years and we are confident this will stand them in good stead in the years to come with FYFO.”

“Having created the brand and the site” Amy continues, “we are now starting to roll out an integrated search and social media plan which will bring new customers to the site on an ongoing basis. The client also has an on-site blog giving their own take on fashion advice, news, reviews and tips.”

Aside from benefits like ‘Free Delivery’ and a very generous ’60 Day Returns Policy’, Monica and Martin have also set up their own charity, Eddie’s Foundation, named after their own young son who has suffered serious illness over the past year. As a result, a donation of every order total taken on FYFO.co.uk will go to the charity. The funds will then be distributed to charitable causes for young children in need across the UK.

You can take a look at the site at www.fyfo.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Teams, tablets and Chu'spaper suits!

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:51:22 GMT

In the midst of a month of rain, the sun finally, and very thankfully, shone on the righteous as the Further team took to the streets for ‘the GPS Challenge’ as part of our 5th birthday celebrations.  

Organised by Kent-based events company Wildgoose, the GPS Challenge  was a Treasure Hunt with a difference, an event which saw four Further teams armed with electronic tablets hunting out the hotspots on foot to discover and answer the next clue.  

The city map was blitzed with so many hotspots to reach that it seemed an impossible task – at least without the odd refreshment/pub stop. Which really did help in loosening the mind and body for some of the camera antics and stunts the teams were made to perform, often alongside scores of bewildered strangers.

After four plus hours in the sun (and the star, the woolpack, the red lion, the compleat angler), we were then ferried off to the Rivergarden (yes, another pub) for the grand prize-giving ceremony, riverside bbq and more beverages before the hardened party animals zipped back into the city centre until long past the wee hours!

The GPS Challenge was great fun, with a single point separating the top two teams at the finish. Commiserations to Team Three, however, who cried foul claiming that their battery had run out after two hours; so guess where they ended up? Yes, last on points, and yes, in the pub!  

Highlight of the day had to be the large screen presentations of each team’s photographic challenges while on the hunt. These ranged from the hilarious to the unrepeatable, with Mr Chu dressed in a beautifully crafted suit made of newspaper possibly the pick. For a moment, Peter, we thought your dress sense had changed for the better! Mention must be made, also, of Amy's so so convincing levitation act !

Well done to the winners on the day, Team Two made up of Joe, Rachel, Chris, Rob and Colin who took away massive trophies and some sharp souvenir medals. A great day and a fun way to say ‘Happy 5th Birthday Further!’

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Zenith Staybrite brightens Furthers day.

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:09:15 GMT

One of the UK’s biggest names in windows, doors and conservatories, Zenith Staybrite has just appointed Further to manage both its paid and organic search business.

The decision follows a recent four way competitive pitch, and will see Further teaming up with Norwich and London based agency Balloon Dog to provide a full integrated service for Zenith Staybrite.

As Further’s Strategy Director Rob Welsby explains, “we are really looking forward to working with the Zenith Staybrite team. They have clear aims and objectives that we are confident we can deliver to in what is one of the most competitive marketplaces of all. Zenith are a long established brand in the sector with a strong reputation and we believe there is a great deal of opportunity for them to develop, especially via online channels.”

“Throughout the pitch process, I was impressed by the sheer passion and professionalism of the Further team involved.” said Zenith Staybrite National Marketing Manager, Louise Marshall. “They very swiftly gained an understanding of our business, demonstrating the scope we have to move forward with both clarity and honesty. In my view, the combination of Further's specialist skills online with Balloon Dog's strategic creative approach gives us the best of both worlds and is exactly what we require right now.”

Zenith Staybrite adds to Further’s growing credentials in the home interest space joining the likes of other market-leading brands flooringsupplies.co.uk and Pine Solutions on the client list.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

John Thew joins Further as MD.

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:24:59 GMT

The directors at Further are delighted to announce the appointment of John Thew as Managing Director, as the agency looks to build on its Top 30 UK Agency status.

John brings a wealth of marketing and digital agency experience with him, having held MD positions at Agency.com and, most recently, user experience design specialists, Flow, where John oversaw the merger with Foolproof, establishing Europe's largest UX consultancy.

A graduate of London University, where he gained a BSc Hons in Econometrics and Statistics, John has spent much of his career working closely with clients, helping to win and develop accounts such as Ford Motor Company, Robert Dyas, Thomson Reuters and Travelocity.

As Further co-Founder Zak Ireson comments, "We are thrilled to have John join us, especially at such an exciting time in our development as a business. John brings with him a wealth of experience and insight that we feel will prove invaluable in helping Further achieve its aim of becoming one of the UK's leading Search and Social Marketing agencies."

John is looking forward to the challenge ahead of him in helping Further to build on its reputation and become seen as the best search agency in the UK in terms of client and ROI delivery. "I have been really impressed with Further's results-based ethos and sheer passion for achieving for clients, a passion which permeates the entire team here," he comments. "What has been achieved in the five short years since formation is something the directors are, rightly, extremely proud of. Their decision to bring in an MD from outside the business demonstrates their continued ambition to drive the company forward and I'm thrilled to be a part of it."

The appointment of John comes at a time when Further has posted record year-on-year turnover for the first six months of 2011.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further appointed to handle search for Chartwell Insurance.

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:00:08 GMT

It is always good to win new business, but all the more satisfying when an existing client appoints you to handle more of their work.

So far this year we have expanded our activity for a number of key clients including Acteon, Original Volunteers and the Richardsons Holiday Group. Now we're thrilled to see Black Vanilla do the same, by awarding Further the Chartwell Insurance brand in addition to the Bikesure account. Both are brands of the Adrian Flux Group with Chartwell being a recent acquisition.

The Chartwell brand specialises in offering motor insurance for drivers with disabilities - covering adapted motor vehicles and mobility scooter insurance.

Client Services Director Louisa Mann was delighted with Further's expanded remit for the Group. " We have really enjoyed working with the client team on the Bikesure business which continues to move forward. Hopefully this new appointment demonstrates the strength of the client- agency relationship. We can't wait to get started on the Chartwell brand."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Latest win is totally funky

Tue, 31 May 2011 16:44:18 GMT

A warm Further welcome aboard to Totally Funky – the latest ecommerce client to appoint us to handle their search marketing.

Totally Funky www.totally-funky.co.uk is an online retailer specialising in unique, novel, retro and innovative gifts for all occasions.

  “A labyrinth of great ideas, the business is now looking to expand and accelerate sales – and we’re delighted to say chose Further as the partner to take them to the next level “, commented Further Account Manager, Amy Smith.

“Totally Funky join an increasing list of online retailers who have been attracted to us by our track record in delivering results for other ecommerce players” she continued. “ It should be a really fun site to work with and we are looking forward  to working with the Totally Funky team.”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further shows growth within UK's top ranks

Tue, 17 May 2011 11:19:16 GMT

We were pleased to see that we’d consolidated our position amongst the UK’s top search agencies when the new NMA rankings were released earlier this month.

2010 had been a stop-start year in terms of retainer growth with much caution in the air and the occasional client fee reduction due purely to the economic climate – so it was good to see growth continue here at Further despite the two steps forward, one step back situation.

This is particularly good news, as 2010 was a year in which we had invested heavily in the in-house development and launch of the FurtherCommerce eCom platform which, right now, has a healthy order book.   In addition, 2010 was the year we started to invest in our own data analysis and intelligence product unit with some exciting new innovations in the market to come. Watch this space!

The great thing is that the new business drive we had towards the back end of the year is paying off in this first half of 2011, so we can expect to see our steady growth climbing forward again this year. More integrated strategies combining search with social media are also becoming the norm rather than the exception, so there’s more than a buzz of excitement in the air as the online marketing goalposts change once again, bringing into play our more creative, innovative approaches to marketing problem-solving.

At a time when a number of the long-established dominant forces in the search sector are no doubt suffering more than the more flexible smaller players in terms of income growth and client retention (See Mark’s blog post New Media Age Services Guide for Search Agencies ), Further’s push towards more holistic and measurable KPI-based campaigns is starting to come into its own.

To this end, we have seen no less than nine new clients join the agency in the past three months – and a number of existing clients expand their spends and activity with Further for the forthcoming year having seen impressive ROI from last year’s activity. Now, isn't that the most important thing of all?

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Great start, let's all stay positive!

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:01:37 GMT

After the sometimes frustrating stop-start year that was 2010, there seems to be a buzz about 2011 so far here at Further, for a number of reasons.

Much of the new business work put in at the tail end of 2010 is now coming to fruition, with new client projects starting for, amongst others, Ochre House, Premier Events, Sunsquare, LEV Bikes, UEA, Theatre Royal, Robinsons Group and Miss Shoes.

Meanwhile, on the back of strong search marketing results, a number of existing clients including Richardsons Group, Acteon and Bikesure have expanded their campaigns for 2011 already - and it is good to see a few looking for us to start integrating social media into their marketing mix.

1st March saw retailers packing out the 100 seater Forum Curve auditorium at 7.30am on a cold morning for our first regional 'More Profitable Online Retailing' Seminar - from which the response has been very exciting. The challenge for retailers and the move towards multi-channel retailing has certainly caused much debate and thirst for trusted advice.

Hopefully, with our growing track record in this arena, supported by our own high-converting eCommerce solution, Further will continue to be the team to provide it for those who wish to follow the best practice route to more profits.

And that's just the start of it. There's a lot to be bullish about right now at Further.

Of course, not everything in the garden is rosy on the economic front - far from it - and none of us yet can know or predict what impact the continuing cuts will have on our businesses as we head through the year. Even if, like us, you are not reliant on public sector clients, the knock-on effect of the economic climate is bound to have a degree of negative impact. For now, however, we have to be positive and think that 2011 will be another year of growth and new potential.

As business gurus so often tell us, 'where's there's a problem, there's always an opportunity' and talking to other growth companies in our region, there is a definite positive momentum which seems to have started building despite the doom and gloom the national media is so eager to broadcast on a day by day basis.

So far, so good. Let's keep the ball rolling and prove them all wrong!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Online Retailng seminar. Will there be a spare seat in the house?

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:41:24 GMT

Less than a week to go until our first ever seminar aimed at those retailing online and we've only a few seats left.

We are thrilled to see that the take-up, with over eighty attendees now confirmed to attend the event which is being held at The Forum's excellent Curve Auditorium on Tuesday 1st March.

'It has been really exciting to see the reaction to the event' comments Amy Smith, Further eCommerce Account
Manager. ' It is encouraging to see that so many of the region's retailers and entrepreneurs have taken such an interest in how they can make their online activity more profitable and successful.'

The seminar will start with a short buffet breakfast from 7.30am before sitting down to two 45 minute sessions on best practice online retailing, spanning the journey from strategy right through to sale. This will be followed by a 'Private' Question Time session with the speakers or any other memebers of the Further team who are present to answer any specific questions any of the attendees have relating to their particular business.

If you are interested in taking up one of the few remaining seats, please call Rachel on 01603 878240 today.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further 'Online Retail' Seminar Announced

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:25:04 GMT

On Tuesday 1st March, we will be hosting and presenting a special early morning breakfast seminar entitled 'More Profitable Online Retailing' in The Curve Seminar Theatre at The Forum in Norwich.

Far from being a theoretical presentation the event will featuring recent Further case studies from this region and beyond, making it a must-attend event for those looking to take their eCommerce, or any transaction-based, website to the next level.

The seminar costs just £20.00 (inc VAT) per place including breakfast and take-home factfile.

Further's experienced and accredited industry speakers will ensure the seminar will be presented in an easy-to-understand way and take you through the key areas from devising the right strategy, creating an engaging response-led site, growing your traffic and ensuring your site is converting your visitors to sales.

Find out more now, or book your place either by emailing rachel@further.co.uk or by calling Rachel on 01603 878240 today. Places are limited, so please book as early as possible.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further Xmas Charity Competition winner wins a Kindle

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:05:37 GMT

If you took part in our Charity 'Collect the Christmas Presents' Competition then many thanks. At the bottom of this article you will find out if you are the lucky winner of the mystery prize - which has now been revealed as a new Kindle.

But first a little more about the competition which was designed to make Further donate to our chosen childrens charity for this year, The Bryan Gunn Appeal which does amazing work in supporting childhood leukaemia.

Considering the time-consuming effort it took to find the various gifts scattered around our site, we were delighted with the number of entries from as far afield as the South of France - and by the many favourable comments we had about the competition.

It was also good to see the variety of sources the entries came from - twitter certainly added value on this occasion!

As a result, Further will be donating £364 to the Bryan Gunn appeal - a far better use of money than sending Christmas cards again this year - we're sure you'll agree!

And now for the news you've been waiting for.

The winner of the Kindle is.....long silence...followed by even longer silence................Laura Marfell-Williams of accountancy firm Price Bailey. Congratulations Laura, your shiny new Kindle is winging its way to you!!!

If you didn't win, then there's always next year, and at least you had a little fun and helped a very worth cause in the process.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Happy New Year from Further

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:32:48 GMT

The team at Further would like to wish all clients. suppliers, friends and website visitors a very Happy New Year.

Despite all the doom and gloom being forecast across the media (what's new?), we believe that 2011 could be a very exciting one for Further and its clients after a 2010 which stuttered along with far more caution in the air than we had all hoped.

Nonetheless, 2010 was another year of steady, if not spectacular, growth here at Further, with a number of fantastic new clients joining us, especially from the online retailing sector.

It was also the year in which Further became recognised as a leading search player nationally for the first time, having been ranked as the 25th largest search agency in the NMA Leading Search Agencies List (9th largest for SEO only). It was also a great feeling to be nominated as a finalist at the industry Oscars, the NMA Effective Awards, at the first time of entering.

The year also saw Further established as an authority in search, with key members of the search team being asked to speak at a number of national and regional conferences, with rave reviews and invitations to repeat the exercise in 2011.

In the search marketing arena, there is still so much scepticism when clients consider a new agency - often having been bitten by their previous one - that our proven case studies in online retail provided an excellent trust base from which to gain these new brands.

At the end of the day, there is nothing more convincing than real, client approved, return on investment figures which demonstrate the power of search to perspective clients, so thanks to all those clients who kindly gave us permission to use their case studies, it is much appreciated.

Indeed, online retail will feature highly on Further's agenda for 2011, with a number of Further-built and marketed eCommerce sites having gone live towards the end of the year - and others planned to launch very soon - spanning sectors as diverse as children's games to country clothing, jewellery to roof windows.

For any business in online retail, we will be providing a complete strategy-to-site-to-search-to-sale service, in short, becoming the complete one-stop-boutique for eCommerce success, supported by ROI stats which demonstrate client returns of up to 2,500% from search marketing.

Of course, one of the key developments we noticed during 2010 was the rise of social media, with the industry seeing clients demanding social media, often without knowing exactly what it was they should be doing - or the effect it could have on ROI, not to mention their own in-house resources to handle the ongoing management of it.

2010 was the year that search and social media become closer and we will increasingly see both featured in more holistic client campaigns as we move through 2011 and beyond. Oh, and don't dismiss the power of mobile, despite being touted as the new big thing for the past five years,it is finally coming to fruition. The new iphone and android platforms are indeed making mobile browsing and mobile commerce a reality. The latest IAB UK usage stats demonstrate a phenomenal growth - and this is an area which is only going to get stronger. So maybe it is time to consider that dedicated mobile site or app, created by Further of course!

So you get the picture? With all these new opportunities to gain market share and lower your cost per sale, it's an exciting time to be a client, or an agency. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

What else have we got up our sleeves for 2011 here at Further? Well, that would be giving it away! You'll just have to watch this space for some exciting developments.

Have a good one!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

EDP Future 50 recognition, again!

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:29:29 GMT

The 2010 Future 50 List, compiled in association with the East of England Development Agency, promotes, celebrates and showcases the entrepreneurial talent and fast growth companies within the Eastern region. This year's judging saw 15 new entries make the list.

According to the judges Zak and Steve were nominated again not just on the strength of Further's continued growth, but the vision and ambition demonstrated by in-house developments which will lead to additional revenue streams for Further and added value for clients of the business. These, of course, include the recently-launched FurtherCommerce eCommerce platform and a new advanced results reporting and keyword intelligence system which is due to be introduced in Spring 2011.

The really impressive thing about the Future 50 is that it gives the business community and the local community the opportunity to discover just how many fantastic new businesses and innovations we have here in this region. From science-based products to greener energy inventions, contract catering to cutting edge marketing and retailing, the diversity of the companies run by the Future 50 members is nothing short of extraordinary.

A number of Further clients are featured on the 2010 list including Flooring Supplies, Pine Solutions, Passion Automotive and Economy Car Hire. Many congratulations!

Find out more about those on the Future 50 list for 2010 now.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Motor parts etailer appoints Further to accelerate growth.

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:03:00 GMT

We are delighted to announce that we have just been appointed to handle the search account for Passion Automotive www.passionauto.co.uk

Passion Automotive, started by 26 year old entrepreneur Simon Doidge, has quickly become a key online resource for those looking for inexpensive car and bike parts and motoring accessories. While the company's new site is under development, Further are already working to deliver higher volumes of convertible traffic to the successful young business.

" Clients like Passion Automotive pose us the sort of challenge we relish here at Further " said Client Services Director, Louisa Mann. "As an eCommerce player, they can truly measure the results we achieve for them, not just by increased rankings, but the actual value in pounds, shillings and pence, right down to the individual worth of each keyword. We are confident we can deliver and look forward to working closely with Simon and his team.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Aviva Search Manager joins Further

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:56:25 GMT

Wes joined us on 11th October from Aviva where he was responsible for the Paid and Organic Search for Aviva’s core insurance products.

Wes graduated of Windsor University, Ontario (yes, he's Canadian) before moving to sunny Bermuda for two years on his way to the UK, where he has settled with his wife and young son. Prior to Aviva, Wes worked for afflliate marketing specialists, OMG.

Commenting on his move to Further, Wes said "I'm really pleased to have landed the role at Further. At Aviva I worked with a number of search agencies and Further's reputation within the industry has continued to grow. The team here is really strong and I'm looking forward to getting involved and bringing my experience to bear
on some really diverse and exciting clients."

Welcome aboard, Wes!!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Country clothing site goes live on FurtherCommerce platform

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:25:49 GMT

High quality country clothing is not a sector well served online - until now. That's because our new Gumleaf Clothing, created on the unique new FurtherCommerce platform has just gone live at www.gumleaf.com

The brainchild of Norfolk farmer Alistair Paterson and his wife Louise, Gumleaf is a new business which designs, manufacturers and sells the finest country clothing for Men and Ladies, including an exclusive and very contemporary Ladies tweed collection.

Alistair was delighted to see the site live after a three month project of research, scoping, design, development and testing before the big day. "I am really pleased we chose the new FurtherCommerce system for our new site. Being custom-designed, rather than having to work to a template, it portrays Gumleaf just the way we'd hoped in look and feel", he stated.

"The back-end management system has proved so much easier to use than we'd expected and gives us so many features which I know will help us in sales conversion. Even before we have embarked on any search activity we have seen a number of sales directly through the site..so watch this space..."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further's charity 'Coffee Hour' has raised £264 so far!

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:54:53 GMT

We're all busy, but just now and again it's good to put something back - especially if it is to benefit a brilliant cancer care charity which every one of us will be touched by at some point in our lives.

Yes, it was Macmillian's World's Biggest Coffee Morning again last week and we were delighted to be able to hold our Further 'Coffee Hour' here at The Old Church again.

Not only did our neighbours within building come and join us as usual, but a few clients and suppliers turned up with their generous donations,too. One lovely client donated a wholesome amount without attending - thanks Jamie and the team at Claxtons for that.

When the well-fed and watered visitors finally left about two hours on, a mini 'cake mountain' still remained, so there was only one thing for it. Yes, Lou and Fran decided to waltz over to the building site over the road, trays in hand. Of course, there was no resisting their charms, or their Vienese Whirls!

Thanks go, as always, to our Chief Organiser and Fundraiser Annette - and to all those in the Further team for baking, buying and bringing in their creamy sponges, rocky roads, carrot cakes and Further-branded macaroons.

£264 (and still coming in) is an admirable effort for such a small event. We'll hopefully see more of you here next year to help us raise the bar again.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

UK's largest online furniture retailer appoints Further

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:13:34 GMT

Record numbers of cash-conscious shoppers are searching online for a deal and PineSolutions www.pinesolutions.co.uk is meeting the demand; supplying over 70,000 customers to date with quality furniture, delivered across the UK.

Offering low prices synonymous with online shopping along with personal service you’d expect in a shop (including telephone assistance seven days a week) has been a winning combination for PineSolutions. Now the online furniture retailer has appointed Further to manage its entire SEO strategy and deliver more prospective customers.

Oliver Peate, eCommerce Manager at PineSolutions is delighted to have Further on board. “We were looking for an SEO agency interested in more than just rankings and traffic” he says “so Further’s focus on delivering genuine prospective customers and return on investment makes them the natural choice”.

“Further’s track record in achieving results for e-retail clients is extremely strong and we expect them to surpass the ambitious targets for PineSolutions.”

Louisa Mann, Client Services Director at Further, is excited by the opportunity of working with PineSolutions. “We are gaining a reputation for delivering high levels of response for our search clients” she commented. “The great thing about the eCommerce sector is our ability to measure the additional sales we help clients to achieve, rather than just rankings – in business, nothing speaks louder than adding real value!”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Leading eCommerce player sees 329% increase in revenue from organic search !

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:16:17 GMT

Being an e-tailer can be so confusing. Wherever you look for advice and tips on making more profit from eCommerce, there are agencies and authorities claiming to offer the holy grail.

Which is all very well and very worthy. But there's a distinct difference between talking about the best techniques, disciplines and activities and actually proving them in real life.

Here at Further we have spent the past three years researching, understanding and, most importantly, testing our own solutions in order to be able to really practice what we preach. We even launched our own search-to-sale service, FurtherCommerce, recently with a more advanced and higher converting eCommerce platform at its core - to enable clients to convert more of their traffic into sales. Less wastage, more profit, happier client, longer relationship.

Ecommerce clients are a perfect client for Further in that we have all the capabilites and expertise to add measurable value straight to a client's bottom line. This brings into play our unique search strategies, the results of which are reported monthly not just on rankings, but actual revenues gained in relation to the client's spend. Clients can see the revenue attributable to each keyword as well as the campaign as a whole. Conversion rate knowledge and testing are also making a healthy difference in providing user-centric design and best ever conversion rates for clients.

Earlier this year we gained national recognition becoming finalists at the NMA Awards for a campaign which has delivered 2094% return on investment for our client, Richardsons,selling UK boating holidays.

Our newly-built and launched site for subscriptionsave.co.uk is already proving a worthwhile investment for its owner, Archant, with SEO and PPC delivering highly convertible traffic on a daily basis, converting magazine and gift buyers to purchase full subscriptions online.

To add to the mix, we have just released our latest year-on-year results for www.flooringsupplies.co.uk , demonstrating another dramatic increase in revenue - revenue which can be directly attributable to our organic search activity. Please take a look at the short case study at www.further.co.uk/flooring-supplies.aspx (Thanks to the client, flooringsupplies.co.uk, for kindly giving us permission to use the case study.)

If you have an eCommerce business and feel it is time to transform it, please come and talk to us at Further.
Call Amy Smith, or Steve Jaggard on 01603 878240 to arrange a free, no obligation meeting.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further to sponsor brand new Tourism award

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:16:08 GMT

Online marketing has had a massive effect on travel and leisure bookings and purchases over the past few years - and the significance of online to this sector just keeps on growing year after year.

Further, as a business, helps a number of travel and tourism related companies to reap the benefits that being online can provide; from regionally-based companies like Richardsons Boating Holidays and Economy Car Hire to global giants such as Expedia.

So when the 'Tourism in Norfolk' Awards were looking to introduce a new 'online effectiveness' category to its prestigious and well supported awards programme for 2010, it made ultimate sense for Further to become the inaugural sponsor.

" The 'Online Effectiveness' category will reward and promote those businesses who have used their online presence to best effect, and have measurable results to prove as much" comments Further Director Steve Jaggard. "We want more business owners and marketing directors to realise just how effective, and profitable, a well-defined online marketing strategy can make your brand. No matter whether you are a small start-up with minimal marketing budgets, or a large well known tourism brand, there are without doubt ways of improving your return on advertising investment using online marketing."

"The new award will put those who have embraced online truly, and rightly, in the spotlight as a beacon for others to hopefully follow. We have a fantastic area to promote, we just need to ensure we promote the region and the businesses within it better than all those other locations in the UK who are continually vying for the same tourism pound ".

Other sponsors for the event include Hoseasons, Lloyds TSB, Holiday Inn and organising sponsors, Eastern Daily Press. Entries for all categories for the 2010 event, which takes place on 19th November, are now open at http://services.edp24.co.uk/norfolk/tourism-awards-2010

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Unbelievable piece of work for Robinsons

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:56:54 GMT

Robinsons VW recently appointed Further to help the company promote the 'unbelievable value' offers that are now available on the Golf, Polo and Fox models.

Further created a number of microsite campaign concepts to fit the 'unbelievable' brief, recommending the creative
'hummingbird' approach which the client selected to not only use for the campaign site, but which would form the basis of the offline advertising too.

The site itself, which compares the current prices of the VW models with their rivals, was produced in-house within three weeks by Further's award-winning design and development team. Traffic will be driven to the site via a combination of Paid Search and offline media including press and radio.

Take a look at the new campaign microsite at www.comparethevalue.com

If your next online campaign requires a more creative strategy, then talk to Louisa Mann on 01603 878240, and discover what a difference Further's approach can make to your end result.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Please support the Further 3 - theyll need it!

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:10:24 GMT

On Sunday 24th October, Further founders Steve and Zak, and Developer, Colin, will be pounding the streets of Portsmouth in aid of charity - and with your donations behind them, they daren’t not complete the gruelling 10 miles that is the Bupa Great South Run.

The Further 3 will be running as part of the NORCAS team, helping to raise money for this worthy cause which works tirelessly to help youngsters to overcome their addiction or dependency to alcohol, drugs or gambling and live a positive life beyond.

All three are in training to take on the challenge in a bid to raise funds for the East Anglian based NORCAS charity www.norcas.org , which has helped thousands of people during its 30 years since formation.

We know there are people asking for charitable donations virtually every week of the year, but any support you can give in the form of a donation would be much appreciated. All you need to do is to go to www.justgiving.com/Further3

 
Thanks for your generosity in advance from Zak, Steve, Colin

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Social slot earns plaudits at CIM Digital Conference.

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:51:05 GMT

Further took to the stage once again last week when Mark delivered a highly-praised ‘Social Media’ presentation at the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Cambridge Digital Marketing Conference which took place at Duxford Imperial War Museum.

Entitled ‘I like this’, the 30 minute slot by Further’s Head of Search was rated by the marketing-savvy audience as one of their favourites of the event – on a day which saw presentations from leading industry experts from the likes of NMA, Google, AdMob and Microsoft.

As Social Media is subject to discussion and debate within marketing departments across globe – some for, but many against, it was appropriate that Mark started the presentation with ‘Why you should care about about social media’ dispelling a number of myths and clouded thinking along the way. This was then followed by a few warnings on how ‘not’ to use social media before finishing with a whistlestop guide to building a social media campaign.

Philip Preston, Regional Director for the CIM was delighted with the response to this year’s speakers. “ It was important to have Further at the Conference as we really needed a common sense approach to social media that the audience could learn from and engage with” he commented afterwards “judging by the speaker ratings, the twitter feedback and the compliments he received during the day, Mark was a very popular speaker on a very important current topic.”

For details of future Chartered Institute of Marketing events in the East of England region , please visit www.cim.co.uk/eastofengland. For details of other CIM national and regional events or information on the range of services offered by the Institute go to www.cim.co.uk

"I Like This" Presentation

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

So close, but no cigar this time.

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:18:37 GMT

Our attempts to land an NMA gong at the digital sector's largest and most prestigious awards were thwarted at the Grosvenor House on Thursday night when Travelex took the 'Best Travel Campaign' prize.

It was the first time we had entered the NMAs - and so were delighted to have been selected as one of only three finalists - the other two being Travelex and Europcar.

Thanks to all those who sent us 'good luck' messages and, of course, to Richardsons Boating Holidays for allowing us to enter their campaign into the awards. It is much appreciated.

Further's Client Services Director Louisa Mann who attended on the Further table at the event later said "Although we would have liked to have capped a great evening at event with the main prize, it was a considerable achievement just to have made it this this far - especially when you consider the brands we were up against. All we have to do now is make sure we are here again next year!

Congratulations to Norwich-based experience design agency Foolproof who picked up a Highly Commended at the awards for their work for client HSBC. It was good to see some familiar faces at the ceremony!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Ben joins Search Marketing team

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:10:27 GMT

Ben Hamment is the latest recruit to Further's expanding search team.

Before joining Further's search team in April 2010, Ben, who is a self-taught SEO specialist, ran his own IT Support Business, catering for homes and small businesses. He also ran his own popular blog on computer security. His content creation skills will make him a valuable addition to the Further team.

Outside of work, Ben is a self-confessed internet geek and gamer who loves nothing more than 'pulling things apart for fun, just to see how they work.'

Welcome aboard, Ben.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Big news for online retailers coming 1st June!!

Wed, 26 May 2010 16:50:54 GMT

Online retailers looking for improved search visibility and conversion rates from their online stores have a treat awaiting them when FurtherCommerce is introduced on 1st June.

Further's new platform is the first of its kind developed by a top UK search agency - a vitally important factor in understanding the visibility, usability and conversion aspects of an eCommerce site.

Every bespoke-designed site will be using a back-end solution that has been nine months in development by a dedicated Further team of designers, developers, search and conversion experts.

While it does not officially launch until 1st June, the FurtherCommerce system has already impressed potential clients in pre-launch demos - so much so that four clients have already signed up and their sites already in development.

If you are interested in taking your site to the next level, why not call Amy Smith on 01603 878240 or email amy@further.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Finalists for the Big One!

Wed, 12 May 2010 10:16:53 GMT

We've just been selected as Finalists in the industry's most prestigious awards, the NMA Effectiveness Awards 2010.

We have been shortlisted in the Best Travel Campaign category for our search strategy and campaign entitled 'Book Online for the First Time' for Richardsons Boating Holidays, who have seen a 2,100% return on investment during the past nine months.

The awards ceremony will take place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 24th June. Fingers crossed!!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further leaves its Mark on national consumer electronics conference.

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:32:04 GMT

The two day event took place at the impressive Birmingham ICC - and Further was invited to join speakers from, amongst others, the BBC, The British Retail Consortium, Freesat, Miele, Panasonic, Roberts and client Hughes TV & Audio.

Entitled 'The devil's in the e-tail', the Further presentation became a talking point at the conference as it provided solutions for those retailers seeking innovative new approaches to their online marketing strategies which no longer simply revolve around the cut-throat pricing which has dominated this sector online for so long - an approach which has, over the past decade, seen margins become virtually non-existent and pushed many retailers out of business.

Throughout Mark's 30 minute slot, the 350 plus delegates were seen taking copious notes and judging by the comments and enquiries afterwards the presentation had really made the audience think again about how to use the Internet to make their businesses more profitable, whether they wish to use it for e-commerce or to drive customers into their bricks and mortar stores.

Further Director Steve Jaggard, who accompanied Mark in representing Further at the conference commented " We were really thrilled and honoured to have been given the opportunity by Retra President Sean Barrett to put our ideas to this audience, an audience who in the main have become pretty sceptical about trading on the internet. Mark's talk really seemed to hit home with many of them. They recognise the internet is not going to go away and were encouraged to hear practical, innovative solutions, some of which they can do themselves without cost, a list of which Mark delivered to finish his slot."

It was a really interesting conference to get involved in at what is a very exciting time in the sector with the advent of 3DTV, internet and TV convergence and the Digital Radio and TV switchover. Thanks to Retra, and to Conference Chairman, Tony Dugdale, for a very well run event. We thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it.

The devil's in the e-tail

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further ranked 25 in NMA Top Search Agencies List

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:24:54 GMT

Despite the ups and downs of the economy, the Search industry has continued to record a positive growth in marketing budgets, particularly when compared with 'traditional channels'.

Testament to this has been the increasing success and reputation of Further, which has now been officially recognised by industry-leading magazine, New Media Age, as one of the Top Search Marketing Agencies in the UK in its 2010 Marketing Services Guide – and the only search agency in the East of England to make the list.

Coming onto the list for the first time at no.25, this ranks us alongside some very well respected and long-established agencies - quite something for a company that started less than four years ago – and in fact sees us amongst the top ten agencies for Natural Search (SEO). Of the companies ranked above us on the newly-published list, only one is actually younger than Further.

'This is great news for the whole team and is a big plus for us as a business', says Further's Search Marketing Manager Chris Gedge. 'We're told by clients that they enjoy our more creative and accessible approach to what we do, and we've invested heavily in recruiting and training the best people to ensure they get the results they demand, so its great to be recognised in this manner. We're all looking forward to seeing what can be achieved this coming year as the recession finally lifts'.

This latest news tops off what has been quite a past 12 months for Further, having won the EDP New Business of the Year in late 2009, and been listed as one of the Future50 companies to watch in the Eastern Region.

A big thank you also to all of our clients for making this possible! We couldn't have done it without you!!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

LondonSEO - The drinks are on us!

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:56:07 GMT

We're very proud to announce that Further will be picking up the bar tab for the LondonSEO party this year.

So, if you feel like some search-centric discussion after the SMX Advanced Expo on the 18th of May, feel free to pop down and join both Rob and myself to swap a business card for a wristband that will grant you the power of free drinks.

The venue this year is the Shakespeare's Head from 18:00 onwards and we even have a little SEO-reserved area.

You can find more details on the LondonSEO website.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Four new sites launched

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:50:15 GMT

The in-house design and development unit has just completed and launched four sites so far in April for clients of Further - including two eCommerce solutions.

Timereel is a fantastic resource for those looking to buy wartime and nostalgia DVDs and films, as the products on sale on the site come directly from the East Anglian Film Archive. Part of the brief was to develop a site that would improve online conversion rate while, at the same time, enable better collection of meaningful customer data. The search marketing team is now working to demonstrate increased ROI for Timereel going forward via use of social media and search campaigns.

The other ecommerce site launched is for Orchard Toys, a British independent maker of toys, games and puzzles for children. This new, larger Orchard Toys site will allow the company to better showcase and sell its expanding ranges of incredibly popular lines - and has been designed to improve the overall customer experience. A bespoke CMS allows the client to continually update designated sections.

Onto education, Dereham Neatherd High School chose Further to create a site that would become not only a resource for current students and parents, but the core marketing tool and shop window for the school as it looks to encourage new students. The site offers far greater interaction and communication with its audiences than previous.

Last, but by no means least, we move from education to educational equipment. Gratnells manufacture and distribute the world's best-selling range of educational storage and tray systems and appointed Further to really push the brand forward online.

The new site has been developed to help Gratnells to improve the visibility of new product launches and sell the ranges across the globe to a trade audience. It features a bespoke on-site search facility for ease of usability and features a handy 3D 'Design your own Tray system' widget.

Gratnells Managing Director, Murray Hudson is thrilled at the outcome. "I think the job Further has done on this very complex site is extremely impressive. They have listened and challenged us, to create exactly the right site for our customers. I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Thanks Further!"

Further doesn't just provide search marketing, but search-ready, high converting sites for local, national and global clients. If you are considering changing your site, then please call Amy on 01603 878240 to arrange a free, no obligation, meeting.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Mazda appoints Further for search.

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:24:09 GMT

Mazda UK has contracted Further to provide SEO on its dealer websites through mazda.co.uk

The Further team will be providing consultancy, strategy and ongoing link-building to the site to push organic search traffic to the car manufacturer’s vast network of UK dealers.

As Further’s Technical Director Joe Gass explains, “we’re naturally delighted to be working with such a great brand as Mazda, and we know we can make a huge difference to their business in terms of supplying official dealers with greater volumes of enquiries from search.“

“The first stage has been working in conjunction with Mazda’s European digital agency to enable the restructuring of the dealer network part of UK site for search visibility.

Beyond this we’ll be implementing a long term SEO strategy aimed at continually increasing Mazda’s share of organic search.”

Clare Marston, the Mazda Communications Co-ordinator responsible for heading up the project commented “From the very first presentation meeting, we have been really impressed with Further’s strategic thinking and understanding of our objectives. Of course, it is very early days, but we are looking forward to seeing what the team can achieve for us over the next nine months and deliver ROI.”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

The Joy of Socks

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:36:23 GMT

Young, progressive and a big success online, Specialist Socks specialise in what they term ‘technical’ socks for all manner of adventure and activity. From ski to hiking, climbing to fishing, athletics to medical socks, the range on the site at www.specialistsocks.co.uk is vast – as are the brand names who manufacture them. Names like Salomon, Nike, Sealskinz, Brasher, K2, Helly Hansen and Thorlo to mention just a few in a cast of thousands.

Chris Smith, Managing Director of the company says “we were struck by Further’s work and results for a company in the adventure footwear sector, and having met with a number of agencies, recognised their ability to deliver for us. They, like us, are young and eager for success. We’re looking forward to working together.”

If you need any decent socks for any activity, then we’d recommend you at least visit www.specialistsocks.co.uk. Having tested their service ourselves for our own research, we highly recommend them.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New Account Manager appointed.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:52 GMT

As the Further client base continues to expand, we're delighted to introduce new Account Manager Amy Smith to the team.

A graduate of Leeds Metropolitan University, Amy joined us on March 1st from leading affiliate marketing company Online Media Group (OMG), where she was Merchant Account Executive on brands such as Barclays, WHSmith, NSPCC, Cancer Research and play.com .

At Further Amy will be working within the Client Services team, helping to bring new clients on board and managing their business on a day-to-day basis.

Outside of work Amy loves to travel and has already visited many countries and enjoyed a post-graduate eight month tour of the Far East and Australasia.

We also hear she's a great scuba diver and a very handy cook, so we're looking forward to the prospect of Further's first underwater dinner party!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

There's only one SEO agency for Two Seasons.

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:31:13 GMT

As the snow began to fall again back at our Norwich HQ last week, it was apt that we could announce the addition of the UK's fastest growing board sports and snow retailer to our client list of search clients.

Two Seasons has been selling snowboarding, ski-ing, surfing and skating gear and equipment for over 25 years and has 23 stores throughout the UK, including flagship outlets in London and Birmingham which stock brands like Billabong, Animal, Roxy, Salomon and The North Face.

As of February we will be driving search traffic to the excellent ranges and offers on the Two Seasons ecommerce site.

'Two Seasons are a terrific brand to be working with' says Further's Search Marketing Director Mark Cook. "Not only are they progressive-thinking and growing, but we love their ethos which encourages anyone working at Two Seasons to be a hands-on expert themselves in the ski, snowboard or surf arena. They don't just sell the brand, they live it."

Further won the Two Seasons business following a five way pitch at the back-end of 2009. The client at Two Seasons, Iain Calvert, felt Further had a strong all-round offering. " Not only did the presentation demonstrate Further's expertise in search", he comments, "we very much liked the results-led approach which seems to run through the entire team at Further and, of course, the fact they have gained a reputation for their levels of reporting and client service." "We're looking forward to what should be an exciting working relationship."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

There's snow stopping those France Show visitors.

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:47:12 GMT

When online ticket registrations for France Show 2010 reached record levels by the end of December, the Further team and the client were celebrating – and looking forward to another big audience for this annual Earls Court celebration of France and French living.

Then everything that could go wrong, did indeed go wrong!!

Firstly, the weather for the weekend of the Show turned out to be the worst weekend possible, with many parts of the UK suffering their worst snowfall for years. To make things worse, the 24 hour media were warning everyone to stay at home "unless your trip is essential'. Great, many thanks for that BBC, ITV and Sky!

Things were not looking rosy. But to top things off, the day before show opening we discovered that the two tube stations closest to the Earls Court venue were to close over the weekend. Complete nightmare!

So imagine our delight, and amazement, to see that over 15,000 people rushed through the doors out of the icy conditions over the three days of the event. In addition, the event attracted more press than ever before, with a number of high quality travel media in attendance for the first time.

While, as you'd expect, numbers were well down on the previous year, exhibitors were praising the quality of the audience – an audience Further helps to attract each year via a combination of SEO, PPC, Twitter and Facebook.

We all expected that those who braved the conditions must be die-hard France Show repeat visitors, but the best news of all was revealed following the post-Show ticket tracking analysis – the fact that over 42% of those who attended had never visited the France Show before.

Now that's a stat that makes us feel warm all over!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further off to flying start to 2010.

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:13:58 GMT

When the bells tolled to ring in the New Year, no-one in any industry sector could confidently say what sort of year we'd be in for - but if January is an indicator of things to come then it will certainly be a busy one here at Further.

Already in January we have been appointed by a number of new clients. Among them are the charity NORCAS who have chosen us to manage their paid search campaigns. Further will also be working with Holkham Estates to drive traffic to its hotels, lodges and self catering accommodation. Pinewoods Holiday Park and Polkadotfrog Recruitment, meanwhile, have come to us for new search-friendly sites. Three other newly-signed SEO contracts will be announced shortly.

Just as important, the early weeks of January have also seen increased levels of commitment from no less than five existing SEO clients. Thanks to all those clients for your continued trust in Further, it is much appreciated.

Further's Director of Operations Zak ireson commented "January is normally viewed as a slow month in terms of new business activity, but surprisingly we have enjoyed virtually record levels of serious enquiries, with a number of other proposals being prepared and presented as we speak."

"Of course, we never know what is round the corner. Let's hope for everyone's sake that the recession does not have a nasty sting in its tail, and that we can all look forward to a 2010 that sees growth and prosperity." Fingers crossed.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further's £400 tweet for Childrens Society

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:19:48 GMT

It seems so long ago now that 2010 has arrived, but we just wanted to thank everyone who got involved with our virtual Christmas Card idea and retweeted our message for the benefit of The Childrens Society.

We were thrilled to see that within just 72 hours of the campaign launching via our Christmas email, more than 1650 individuals had made the effort using their Twitter accounts.

This had purely been a first time experiment, so we honestly didn't know what to expect. But the upshot of it all is that £400 will be winging its way from Further to the Childrens Society as a Christmas gesture from the company.

While we didn't quite make it to the summit of the virtual Christmas tree featured on the campaign landing page, it was a terrific feat, so we have decided to donate the full target amount nonetheless.

In addition, a few generous individuals also made their own donations via justgiving.com.

Thank you so much. We hope you enjoyed seeing something a little different from the normal agency Christmas card.

Now for an even more innovative plan for next year!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

From today....you tweet, we donate!

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:41:56 GMT

Last year we decided not to send Christmas cards in favour of sending everyone an email card and then donating money to East Anglian Children's Hospices (EACH). This year, we decided to take things a stage further, by donating to the Childrens Society every time our Christmas message is tweeted via Twitter.

The Christmas card is in the form of an email, which then asks readers to click-though to a specially designed page featuring an illustrative Further fund-raising Christmas tree.

Tweeting the message on the page pushes up the total that the Further team will donate to The Childrens Society by 10p per tweet - and as the total reaches pre-determined milestones, the tree lights up accordingly.

The page also links off to a special 'JustGiving' page for any readers who wish to make a cash donation themselves to the worthy cause.

The email went out this morning, and we'll be keeping you up to date with how things are going, but for now, why not take a look at the page for yourself at http://charity.further.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Presentation to local businesses shows growing interest in social media

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:54:26 GMT

This morning I gave a breakfast presentation on the Pros and Cons of social media, at the invitation of the Norfolk Chamber. The event was very well received by a impressive audience of 80-90 local business and organisation representatives, and despite the early start I really enjoyed having the opportunity to discuss something I'm passionate about with a room full of interested people!

For those who attended and anyone who couldn't make it, I thought I'd post the presentation here. If there are any questions or comments, please feel free to add them to this blog post. Unfortunately we didn't have time for a proper Q&A session this morning, so I'm more than happy to provide further information here.

The Pros and Cons of Social Networking

You can download a copy of this presentation by clicking here

Thanks to Caroline from the Chamber for inviting me to speak, and to Tatum for organising my attendance :)

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

France Show 2010. Tickets break the 30,000 mark!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:58:43 GMT

Prospects are looking good in terms of potential visitor numbers for the upcoming France Show 2010 in January, a show Further promotes online to the public each year.

Ticket registrations for the Earls Court consumer event are already up on last year with the total amount of individual tickets registered for hitting 30,501 this week, justifying once again the decision to push a ‘free ticket’ offer to gain audience from as far in advance as three months prior to the event.

The France Show is the UK’s largest celebration of France and French living, with food and drink, the arts, travel and property at its core. The event, previously known as Vive La France, has enjoyed a recent resurgence since its change of ownership in Summer 2007.

The Further team won the CIM’s Online Effectiveness Award for the 2008 show – and this year has built upon the event’s strong search and online presence with a whole raft of new Social Media activity, working across Twitter, Facebook and special interest blogs and discussion groups.

“The key” as Further’s Search Manager Chris Gedge explains “ is to work on attracting those new audiences we have not reached before who are interested in one or more of the special interest areas featured in the show whether they are into cookery, overseas property, art, wine, champagne, shoppers or simply love travelling to France. It is vital that the audience are made aware and put the date in their diaries long before Christmas, so having an ‘early-start’ promotion has again been very important to the campaign. After all, once we hit December everybody’s mind is on Christmas - and as the event is early in January it is a tricky time to try and build a high attendance “

Of course, our ‘online’ role is just part of the bigger promotional picture as the client, Archant Life France, markets the show very successfully offline via its market-leading sector magazines, France, Living France and French Property News.

Now that the offer period is over, tickets to the France Show 2010, which takes place at Earls Court, 8th-10th January, cost just £10 each. Visit www.thefranceshow.com to book and to find out more.

With cooking demonstrations by Jean-Christophe Novelli, Can-Can and Moulin Rouge dancers, wine and champagne tastings and seminars, sample signature dishes cooked by top French restaurants, talks by celebrity authors Kate Mosse and Carol Drinkwater and so much more, believe us, it really is a fantastic fun day out!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

As seen in .Net magazine

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:48:18 GMT

Our new site for luxury tailor-made holidays specialist Senses Holidays received a mention in this News section in October when it was first launched.

Last week we were delighted to see it had been featured in the industry's top development magazine .Net, (pronounced Dot Net).

Lead developer on the Senses project, Colin Watts, had sent a review of the site to be considered for inclusion in the magazine's monthly best new work showcase - and was delighted to see it made the final cut.

As Colin explains " Dot Net receives hundreds of reviews every month from agencies wishing to showcase their work. We were very pleased with the look, feel and build of the new Senses site, so felt it worthy
of inclusion alongside the industry's very best. "

"Although we at Further are known as a search agency," Colin continues " many clients also come to us for their sites, as we have an award-winning team of best practice designers and developers who know how to create sites which visitors can navigate easily and engage with - and those are the sites which achieve the response. After all, it is pointless us driving traffic to sites which simply don't convert, so we have an expert team here at Further to provide this service to our clients."

To take a look at the feature, click on the thumbnail below. To see the new Senses Holidays site, go to www.sensesholidays.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Economy Car Hire park SEO account at Further

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:00:10 GMT

Further’s latest SEO signing comes in the shape of Economy Car Hire who, we are delighted to say, started with us on 1st November.

The company, an independent family-run business specialises in car rental in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta, Greece and the Greek Islands.

It has grown significantly in recent years off the back of excellent fully inclusive rates allied to customer service levels rarely seen in the sector – standards that have brought massive loyalty and customer referral.

Further’s role will be to increase the level of new customer enquiry via natural search with target terms based around the towns and cities within the countries of hire.

As Economy Car Hire’s MD Rory Sexton explained, “ Further is a fast-growing, forward-thinking business just like ours with a reputation for delivering results for its clients, a number of whom are in the competitive travel sector in which Economy operate. We have been impressed so far by their level of expertise and detail, and are really looking forward to working with the team during 2010.”

You can visit Economy Car Hire at www.economycarhire.com

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Magazines site launches as Christmas gift shopping starts.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:32:50 GMT

This week saw the launch of our latest site build, that of www.subscriptionsave.co.uk

The new site has been created as part of a strategy to sell subscriptions to the leading monthly magazines of Archant, the UK's no.1 independent publisher of regional and specialist interest magazines.

As the site name suggests,www.subscriptionsave.co.uk will provide visitors with the very best subscription offer available on their favourite magazines, which they can select and purchase online via credit or debit card.

For the first phase of marketing, Further will be employing Paid Search to drive targeted traffic, while offline visitors will be attracted to the site by a campaign across Archant's own newspaper and magazine titles.

Titles available on the site include market-leading monthlies such as Photography Monthly, Professional Photographer, Sport Diver, Pilot, Canal Boat, France, Living France and French Property News, as well as
Archant's total portfolio of county lifestyle magazines.

As Joe Gass, Further's Technical Director commented, " we have worked to a tight timescale in order to get the site live in time for the Christmas season, the busiest season for gift subscriptions. The site, which has been designed and built with maximum search visibility in mind, also integrates with the back-end ordering system of CDS Global, Archant's subscription fulfillment provider, to give a seamless solution. "

"This new site enables us to finally go head to head with the other multi-subscription portals" says James Parfitt, Archant's Web Manager responsible for the project. "We're really pleased with the end result, it looks good, it is easy for customers to use and has been built to allow us the flexibility to sell an unlimited number of titles."

Take a look at the site at www.subscriptionsave.co.uk now. Who knows, you may just find a perfect Christmas gift you hadn't even considered?

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Small business, big SEO exposure.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:33:57 GMT

The beauty of SEO is that, with a little smarter thinking, SMEs can outgun their bigger-spending competitors. Further client Steven Brooks Photographer is a great example.

Based in Kent, here’s a one-man photography business who has been forward-thinking enough to recognise the value of search to the future of his business.

He came to Further for a new site, www.stevenbrooksphotographer.co.uk , which would give him the platform to launch an effective SEO campaign. Patient enough to recognise that organic search would not yield instant results, the client is now reaping the rewards from his monthly investment.

Try a search for ‘wedding photographer’ and Steven Brooks lies in the coveted #1 spot in Google.

“Further has demonstrated to me that SEO can really provide a return for a business like mine” says Steven. “From the rankings Further has achieved for me, I am receiving a continuous flow of new business enquiries and bookings.”

As for the downside of a great little case study like this? Well, we at Further receive at least 2 enquiries a week from rival photography businesses wanting the same rankings for the same key terms as Steven Brooks. Being ethical, we obviously can’t have two clients competing for the same core terms – but hey, we’re just delighted to be working with a client like Steven Brooks.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further wins "Best New Business" award.

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:54:14 GMT

For 20 years now, the EDP Business Awards have been recognising the best in the business in our region - and last night Further was handed the award for Best New Business.

The very well organised event, sponsored by Harley-Davison for the first time, saw the biggest entry and some of the stiffest competition for many years according to EDP Business Editor Paul Hill, despite a year of economic recession, which bodes well for the region for 2010 and beyond.

As for the Best New Business Award, the three finalists could not have been more varied. Right Angle Events, finalists already in national business award schemes, have created an excellent and quite unique business based on Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) events, both for the corporate and educational sectors. The Pigs, meanwhile is a new Public House and restaurant with a difference. Set up by well known local chef Richard Hughes and recognised for its innovation in the food sector, its offering goes far beyond simply serving great food, by providing opportunities for the local community, young and old, to engage in the growing and cooking of high quality food.

We were delighted, therefore, when Further was called forward to accept the award, followed, of course, by the on-stage live interview with TV presenter Stewart White, who did a fantastic job on the evening.

"To be recognised as the Best New Business in our area across all sectors means a great deal to us at Further" commented Co-Founder and Director of Operations Zak Ireson. "We won a marketing award for online effectiveness earlier in the year to demonstrate the results we gain for clients, but this one is a recognition of our business as a whole - our business vision, culture, management, performance - so it is especially gratifying."

"We know we deliver for clients, and that we have an exceptional team, but it is always appreciated when a panel of expert business judges gives you acknowledgement of that. We're thrilled"

Thanks go to the EDP, Mary Rudd PR, Harley Davison, the Production Bureau and the Hilton Hotel for putting on what is the big event in the region's business calendar.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New luxury holiday site launched

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:32:31 GMT

If you fancy a luxury holiday to the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, the Maldives or Dubai, then the site we have just launched for client Senses Holidays will really whet the appetite.

Being a specialist in talior-made holidays to these destinations, the objective of the site is not to sell holidays directly online, but to tempt the visitor with some of the ultimate hotels, resorts and tours available, and then prompt a booking enquiry straight off the site via email or phone.

SEO will be employed to drive traffic to the new domain and maximise visitor and enquiry numbers. The site will be continually analysed to ensure conversion rates from homepage to enquiry are high.

Please take a look at the site at www.sensesholidays.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

£255 for a worthy cup of coffee!

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:46:53 GMT

So many of the team made or purchased cakes, (Mario brought a fruit flan!), there was coffee, tea and orange juice and the guests invited from neighbouring floors duly did their bit, by responding to the heavyweight in-house offline poster campaign. They turned up for a cup of cha and a chat for charity, and gave some very generous donations.

Everyone knows someone who has been touched by cancer, and the work of the Macmillan nurses and team is unsung and outstanding. We're absolutely delighted, therefore, to do our little bit!

A big thank you to our neighbours who attended.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New Further/CIM Survey reveals marketing beyond recession

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:10:47 GMT

'The future is indeed looking brighter'. That's the overwhelming view of marketing chiefs from all across the six counties of the Eastern region who participated in our recent 'Marketing through the Recession' Survey.

The comprehensive survey was developed by Further in association with the East of England Chartered Institute of Marketing - and provides many intriguing insights into the questions we all want answered such as:

• "How have spends been affected by the recession?"
• "Will budgets be increased in 2010, and by how much?"
• "Which marketing disciplines will be decreased or dropped?'
• 'What new activities will be trialled for the first time?'
• "What proportion of budgets will be going to each activity?"
• "Which activities are perceived to offer the best/worst ROI?"

In terms of general questions regarding confidence regarding the end of the recession, the Further survey deliberately mirrored the questions of the National Trends Survey to compare views. Interestingly, businesses in the eastern region scored higher in confidence levels than the picture nationally, with Essex coming out highest of all.

As Philip Preston, Regional Director for the CIM explained, "The respondent profile for the survey was pretty robust,covering all shapes and sizes of organisations from B2C, B2B and the third Sector."

"In general it is the traditional above-the-line media, such as Press, TV, Radio and Outdoor that is going to suffer the biggest cut in marketing spend this year. For example only 5% of respondents said they would increase their Press spend by over 5% whereas 28% said they would reduce spend by over 5%. Recently released advertising spend figures would tend to back this up."

Conversely, nearly a quarter of respondents said they would increase spend on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by over 5% (nearly 9% intend to increase spend by over 10%). A similar picture emerged for Online Advertising, Online PR (blogs, viral, social media) and Pay Per Click (PPC). Over 20% of respondents said they would try Social Media marketing, Blogs and SEO for the first time this year.

To some extent these findings reflect the uncertainty that exists among marketers regarding the Return on Investment different marketing activity delivers. According to the survey the media or activity delivering the best ROI are Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM), Email, SEO and, for those using the activity, Field Marketing. Direct Marketing seems to polarise respondents – nearly 20% ranked this activity 1st or 2nd highest ROI whereas a similar number of respondents ranked it worst or 2nd worst ROI.

However, it is pretty clear that Press, TV, Radio and Cinema are regarded by a significant number of marketers as the worst for ROI. Perhaps the old saying “half my advertising works, I just don’t know which half” is still true.

Is all this just a blip and will the level and mix of marketing activity return to normal once the recession is over? Not according to our survey.

The media or marketing activities most likely to suffer in the long-term as a result of the recession are predicted to be Press, TV, Radio, Cinema, Outdoor, Exhibitions and Sponsorship. I bet you can guess what’s coming next – the winners are likely to be Online PR, SEO, Email, Online Advertising, CRM and PPC.

PDF copies of the Results Report are available, free of charge, to Further clients and newsletter subscribers, so sign up now and then request a copy of the Report by emailing steve@further.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further founders named in Future 50 Entrepreneurs List

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:49:17 GMT

This morning, the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) in conjunction with the Eastern Daily Press held a breakfast reception to launch their first ever 'Future 50' list – a list of fifty entrepreneurs with growing, successful businesses whose progress will be monitored and reported on over the next three years – and Further’s two Founders Steve Jaggard and Zak Ireson both feature.

Just over three years old, Further is one of the youngest businesses recognised in the Future 50 list which was compiled by a panel of judges made up of well known experienced business leaders spanning the public and private sector.

Keynote speakers at the event which was held at the very impressive Open venue in Norwich were Paul Hill, Business Editor of the Eastern Daily Press, Richard Ellis, Chairman of EEDA and Will King, Founder and CEO of global success story ‘King of Shaves’.

“We are pleased to be included in the Future 50 list as, more than anything, it lends credibility and trust to our service offering”, explains Zak. “It is especially rewarding to see us up there as the only business representing the search marketing and social sector.”

The complete Future 50 list will be published as a colour supplement in Wednesday's Eastern Daily Press. Thanks to Paul Hill and his team for an excellent and refreshingly inspiring corporate networking event.

**Update: Further have beed named to the 2010 EDP Furture 50 list**

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further fully adopts search for charity

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:21:03 GMT

We love search here at Further - so much so that we’ve just adopted the word ‘search’ to help support the children’s charity, I CAN.

I CAN are a children’s charity which helps change the lives of children with language and speech difficulties. As part of fundraising efforts they are letting the public and companies alike ‘adopt a word’. Celebrities such as Stephen Fry have taken part in the fun.

At Further we understand the need for great communication. This is fast becoming an important element of your web strategy. It’s important to not only make your site easy to use, but also to ensure its accessible to all.

So what should you employ on your website? Below are a few tips based on good communication.

On-page structure
Having a clear heading for each page allows users to know they’re in the right place if they’ve landed from a search engine or link. Use the H1 HTML tag once per page to describe the content. You can use H2, H3, H4 tags to create sub headings for your page content. A good use of heading tags creates a good content structure and is beneficial for screen readers and logical semantic mark-up. Getting the on-page SEO basics implemented correctly is important.

Sales Message
Your sales message throughout the website should understand your visitors intentions. For instance your product/service descriptions should ideally convey the benefits and also provide enough detail to encourage a user towards a goal such as a purchase or key action.

Feedback
Listening is an often over looked aspect of communication. Add feedback channels for your website so you can listen to your customers opinions. These comments will let you know what is and isn’t working on your site. Then you can make the necessary changes and reap the benefits.

Speak your customers' language
Write your content for your locality. Using an online translation tool to create content for your foreign site visitors is unacceptable. Read our localise SEO tip for to understand market analysis.

Customer Service
People appreciate good customer service. A prompt and helpful support level will increase return visitors. Return visitors have a much higher percentage of converting. Make sure your phone number and contact links are highly visible.

It doesn’t take much to improve your website’s appeal. If you’re interested in a site audit or a full search strategy, get in touch with Further today by contacting Louisa on 01603 878240 or email louisa@further.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further boosts its paid credentials.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:23:16 GMT

With the number of Further clients using paid search as part of their digital strategy at an all-time high, the appointment of PPC expert Nicola Eaton as Paid Search Manager couldn’t have been better timed.

A fashion promotion graduate and dead keen DIYer, Nicola had an excellent grounding at leading digital agencies, CheezeDMG, and latterly, Soup, where she spent five years managing the PPC accounts for the likes of Aviva, Innocent Drinks, Zenith and Weatherseal.

Further co-Founder Steve Jaggard believes this latest appointment is a significant one for the continued growth of Further and its clients. “ Professional PPC specialists with a proven track record like Nicola are a valuable asset to any search agency, but in Nicola we have a qualified marketer too.”

“As the search landscape changes, marketing understanding and thinking will play more and more of a part in creating results-driven campaigns. Having Nicola on board should give any client the reassurance of placing their paid search work with Further.”

If you are interested in paid search for your organisation and would like to discuss it in more detail, please feel free to call Nicola on 01603 878240.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Best New Business Finalists

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:05:09 GMT

Back in May we entered the 2009 Eastern Daily Press Business Awards and now that the judging has been carried out, we are 'over the moon' to find ourselves amongst the region's very finest businesses at the Winners Ceremony which will be held in October.

Having been recognised as 'the' business awards for the East Anglian region for over 20 years now, the competition is very strong and the number of entries vast. This year's awards are being sponsored by Harley Davison and past winners at the high profile awards include Lotus Cars, Start-rite, Adnams and May Gurney.

There are nine award categories to choose from and Further has been selected as one of three Finalists for the Best New Business Award, with the category sponsored by 'Shaping Norfolk's Future'.

As Further Director of Operations Zak Ireson states " These awards are very different from our normal industry awards in that they are not judged just on our results for clients, but on our business as a whole; our structure, management, marketing, staff development, growth potential, impact on our region and, of course, financial stability. All the facts and figures are in, the visits have taken place. Now all we can do is cross our fingers and wait for October".

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New search appointment set to make his Mark!

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:10:54 GMT

As new business wins continue, we're delighted to welcome another new addition to the Further search marketing team - Mark Hannant.

With a wealth of experience carrying out SEO, PPC and social media campaigns for the likes of Hoseasons, BennettsOnline and Celotex, Mark was the ideal candidate to fill our Search Marketing Consultant position and came on board in early July.

Outside of work, Mark has also created and managed his own thriving community and blog sites which are bound to make him a key asset to the team moving forward.

Having joined from digital agency Magic, where he set up the search marketing unit, Mark is really looking forward to the new challenges which lie ahead at Further.

As he explains, "the real attraction of coming to Further was the size of the search marketing team and the ethos for encouraging new initiatives and ideas generation, particularly in the SEO arena. I've felt really at home from day one and can't wait to get my teeth into the diverse range of clients here".

A self-confessed web-aholic, newly-married Mark spent his honeymoon in the paradise of the Maldives, although he stresses that camping is usually more his thing. After the cost of the Maldives, we're not surprised!!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

A 2,094% return for Richardsons

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:59:20 GMT

We recently told you about the very early success of our new site and search strategy for Richardsons Boating Holidays. Now, some 21 weeks since going live, we are delighted to see the trend continuing.

The new site at www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk was the first ecommerce site the client has had, taking online bookings as well as brochure and booking requests.

Latest results after 21 weeks.
- 940 online bookings
- 2313 email submissions of which 1976 (84%) requested brochure.

Taking the total value of bookings gained through search marketing through the site, against the costs of both the new site build and ongoing search marketing spend, this equates to a 2,094% return on marketing spend.

This is excellent news for the client who is obviously enjoying a healthy return on investment, but for us possibly the best news of all is that search engines have accounted for over 75% of all site visitors.

A fact which hopefully reinforces a point we are always making to potential clients - about the need for having joined up thinking in online marketing - a search campaign which delivers high volumes of relevant continuous traffic allied to a site which has been designed and built with usability and conversion in mind. This is a perfect example of that theory in action.

The natural search campaign has seen Richardsons overtake other market-leading brands with 1st position on Google being gained for seven core search terms including most recently, the key industry term 'boating holidays'.

As Emma Day, Marketing Manager at Richardsons commented “we are really pleased with the level of bookings coming through so far. Further’s search marketing work has been continuously increasing our traffic. The new site gives us a new look moving forward, and the addition of online booking was something our research demonstrated needed to happen to keep us in line with consumer expectations. It’s an exciting move forward.”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Massive Jacko SEO feat ends in tragedy

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:15:29 GMT

The recent death of the 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson has shook the world, demonstrating just how huge he had become during his four decades as a top level performer. He had also sold some 800,000 tickets for the forthcoming series of gigs at the O2 arena.

For the team at Further, and our client London-based viagogo, the bad news was a double shocker - as only two weeks earlier, we had been celebrating getting the client to No.1 on Google UK for the most competitive of key terms - "Michael Jackson tickets".

As SEO Manager at Further Chris Gedge pointed out " to get to position 1 in the natural listings for the one term that all ticket companies worldwide were fighting over at that time, many with vast SEO budgets, was a terrific achievement. Sadly the O2 performances so many were looking forward to will now never take place. All tickets purchased through viagogo will be refunded directly to fans and they'll be in touch with everyone in due course."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Buggies, Beer and Bravado

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:05:20 GMT

Forget the 20/20 World Cup, the British Grand Prix, Wimbledon or Royal Ascot. In terms of sheer competitiveness, the number one event in British Sport this summer took place last Friday – and was not even televised.

Further’s 3rd Birthday Olympics pitted two evenly matched teams against each other in the blazing sun to find Further’s giants of sport.

Held at the very impressive Potters Leisure Resort on the Norfolk coast, the gladiatorial spirit reigned supreme as the competitive genes truly came out of hibernation in a day that saw many Furtherees challenging themselves on activities they’d never attempted before.

Archery
The Archery event, was held in the excellent new Shooting Range, (so new, in fact, that we were the first to step inside it as the builders exited Stage Right). Here we witnessed the adept – and the simply inept – with Louisa becoming the first athlete to miss the range completely and take a chunk of the freshly painted wall out with a stray arrow.

Archery Results: Gold: Zak Silver: Joe Bronze: Chris

Climbing
Next up it was the climbing wall, or rather ‘walls’ of varying difficulty. When we first entered the Climbing Hall and saw the walls, there were resigned looks of ‘no can do’ amongst the vertigo sufferers who shuffled to the back of the queue to take part. But respect where respect is due, everyone stepped up to the plate and surprised themselves with some ‘nothing-short-of-awesome’ displays.

It was thought that Joe from the first group had taken an un-assailable lead with a stunning time of 10.2 from ‘ floor to ceiling’. But rather than simply accept the fact that the first group had a spiderman in their midst, the second group simply went for it – and discovered their own superhero in ‘Monkey Man Mario’ who seemed to fly up the wall in 7.7 seconds. Of the ladies, Annette really excelled on the wall and is rumoured to now be looking at a career (or at least a course) in the discipline!

Climbing Results: Gold: Mario Silver: Mark Bronze: Joe

Clay
The third event on the programme was Clay Pigeon shooting – the event that had promised so much for the geeks on the team who spend most of their lives on Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and the like. Boy, they were confident – and their confidence appeared to be paying off as whispers emerged from the first group that a certain SEO Manager just may have ‘dusted’ 9 of his 10 clays.

It was no myth, Mr Gedge had the edge. Until, 14 contestants later, up stepped the experienced, (that means grey and balding) head of Steve, who didn’t waste a clay to record a ‘straight 10’, much to everyone's disbelief, including his own. A special mention must go to Rachel, who recorded a fine 7 clays, demonstrating why she’s the best invoice payment enforcer in the office.

Meanwhile, it would appear that pigeons have an allergy to Fran. Every time she took aim that would either speed up, or slow down just when they saw Fran pull the trigger, managing brilliantly to dodge all the bullets.

Clay Pigeon Results: Gold: Steve Silver: Chris Bronze: (Jt) Pete / Ryan

Buggy Race
The piece de resistance came with the buggy racing which took place on the bumpiest, hardest, dustiest track imaginable. These were no ordinary buggies, but ‘thrilling machines’, specially constructed (and very expensive) anti-roll racing quads-cum-carts which could deliver upwards of 50mph – what an adrenaline buzz!!

We all had 8 minutes on the circuit each with the adjudicators timing latter laps for the competition to find the winners. Machismo was rife amongst those who’d always fancied themselves as the Schumacher of the search agencies, the McCrae of all marketing businesses. A stench of testosterone filled the fresh coastal air as, one by one, the gladiators donned their helmets and went into battle.

Would it be the weekend track racer Gedge? One of the office biker boys, Cook or Gass? Could it be Rachel or Lou, the lead-footed soft-top girls? Or then just maybe there was a Black Beauty, a dark horse who would emerge quietly from the shadows and silence the talkers. Indeed, this was the wacky races – sadly without the Ant Hill Mob, but with four Penelope Pitstops!!

As the engines roared and the dust flew, many were trying to gauge just how fast their peers were going, others were doubled in laughter as, amongst others, Pete spins off at the second corner and Mark busts a chain on only his second lap. When the results are later announced by Jane Potter of Potter’s Leisure at the Official Medal Ceremony, reputations are shattered as Zak Dastardly takes the coveted crown.

Buggy Racing Results: Gold: Zak Silver: Rob Bronze: Carl

Celebrations
After the Medal Ceremony, the celebrations began in earnest with a Champagne Toast, fabulous curry dinner and the ceremonial 3rd Birthday cake cutting. Then, after a rogue dance or two in the theatre where a live Irish Band were playing to a packed house, it was back to Norwich to continue the partying until the wee hours. (With a coach stop for a mass roadside wee on the return journey.)

Thanks must go to Jane and the team at Potters for an amazing venue and, most importantly, the exceptional customer service shown throughout the day. From kitchen to climbing wall, everything ran like clockwork and if this is a taste of things to come when their new Corporate Events Centre is launched, then it simply cannot fail.

On this day, we competed, we laughed, we bonded, we challenged ourselves, and we imbibed in no small measure. In the words immortal Lou Reed, this was the 'perfect day’.

Thanks to Rachel for organising it this end!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Top photography sites launched from new development platform

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:50:19 GMT

Further’s web development team has created a unique platform for launching a series of websites for the Archant Specialist’s market-leading consumer magazine portfolio.

The platform, 100% developed by Further Development Director Joe Gass and the in-house development team will enable far more customer engagement than the previous sites by having reusable modules that include editorial, forums, galleries and user generated content with user galleries, comments, user ratings, friends and messaging.

Photography Monthly at http://www.photographymonthly.com/ was the first to be launched off the new platform and was designed by Further’s design team. Since going live in February, the new site has had quite a reaction.

By May 2009 the site had seen a 230% increase in unique visitors year on year. Page views have also doubled per unique visitor. Better still, magazine subscriptions sold from the site are up 300%.

The title’s Facebook page has gained 1800 visitor members since launch and the Twitter account has achieved 1440 Twitter followers.

The second site, Professional Photographer, http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/ went live in early June and features include the opportunity for users to upload your work to the portfolio section for a fee, gaining the photographer greater exposure and the title additional revenues.

A new site for Sport Diver, the leading PADI- approved Scuba Diving magazine is planned to be the next project developed from the platform.

Find out why you should use Further's design and development team for your company's next site. Call Louisa on 01603 878240 or email louisa@further.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further finally loses its online tag.

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Our company name may be Further, but for over three years now we have been labelled as ‘Further Online’, purely because of our furtheronline.co.uk domain. Not any more.

At the start of June we finally purchased the domain name we have always had our eye on – the simple, single word domain ‘www.further.co.uk’.

The Further website moves over to this new URL and all company email addresses will change to name@further.co.uk as of 8th June.

Please change your contacts and bookmarks accordingly. Just to ensure we don’t miss any correspondence, we’ll be redirecting all furtheronline contact to the new domain for the foreseeable future.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, but we’re just delighted to finally be recognised as Further!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New London abode up and running

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As the Further client list grows, and more business is being won from the London area, it makes sense to have another place to meet with those existing and potential clients - and indeed to work from.

Consequently, we have moved into Lemon Studios in Clerkenwell Road – the excellent ‘digital workspace’ set-up by e-consultancy.

The meeting facilities are excellent, providing both formal and informal presentation rooms – so if you are in London and wish to have your next meeting there, just let us know. We’ll be delighted to show you around.

“The new office gives us so much flexibility in terms of working, servicing and developing business here in London where we have been having a lot of success of late” comments Further Co-Founder Zak Ireson.

The contact details for the London office are;
Further Search Marketing, Lemon Studios, 85 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5AR Telephone; +44 (0)20 7681 4090

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

New Project Manager appointment.

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

After a long and laborious search for the right person, we’re delighted to announce that Francesca Woollon has just joined us as Project Manager.

Fran’s background includes roles in web design and development, database design and, of course, project management. Fran’s role will be pivotal within Further, primarily ensuring the efficiency and smooth-running of the recently expanded design and development department.

As Further director Zak Ireson points out “Fran’s first-hand experience and understanding of design and build disciplines made her an outstanding candidate for this role – an expert Project Manager who can help us to shape and hone our internal processes moving forward to ensure clients continue to receive quality, efficiency and reliability. ”

Fran joins Further from Great Yarmouth Borough Council where she was Web Communications Manager. Outside of work she lists live music, 80’s cheese and VW Beetles as among her loves in life. We’ve also noticed she’s not averse to the occasional pint or two!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Lucky Voice and Further to duet on home karaoke service

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Further has been appointed by pioneering UK karaoke brand, Lucky Voice, to market its new Lucky Voice Home service.

The brainchild of LastMinute.com founder Martha Lane Fox, Lucky Voice was set up in 2005 with a simple aim; to allow friends to get together and sing their hearts out in the luxury of their own private karaoke room.

The idea has really caught on and Lucky Voice now has high-end private karaoke bars in London, Manchester and Cardiff.

The new service, Lucky Voice Home, takes the idea a stage further by turning your computer into the ultimate karaoke machine. With access to thousands of songs on demand in glorious full-screen, it allows the public to sing over 1,000 songs for free in their own homes.

As Lucky Voice Head of Business Development, Peter Hames explains “There’s a no more riotous, uplifting way of spending time with friends than singing together. Now with Lucky Voice Home everyone can have the full Lucky Voice singing experience in the comfort of their living room.”

The Further team will be driving UK visitors to the Lucky Voice Home site via targeted natural and paid search.
Take a look at the Lucky Voice online karaoke site at www.home.luckyvoice.com and try the service for yourself.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Design team grows with appointment of John Skinner

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A run of recent new client wins has led to the expansion of the Further design and development unit with the appointment of John Skinner as Web Designer.

A former graduate of Norwich School of Art & Design (now Norwich University College of the Arts), and an expert in digital and interface design, John previously built up his own successful freelance business working for various leading agencies before taking up the post here at Further.

As co-founder and Director of Further ,Zak Ireson, pointed out “ we have been looking to fill this position for some time and are delighted to have finally found a designer of John’s calibre to bring into the design team. In addition to having a fine portfolio of website design, his expertise and experience suit our ever-growing need for first rate design when creating social media and linkbuilding applications.”

The appointment takes the Further team up to a total of 17.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further secure bike insurance win.

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We are delighted to announce that we will be working with Bikesure.co.uk, the specialist bike insurance division of Adrian Flux Insurance. After a successful three-way pitch, we were chosen to partner Adrian Flux Insurance because of our experience and understanding of the industry.

Client Services Director Louisa Mann commented "The team are delighted to be working with such an established brand and we are very much looking forward to developing a long term relationship with Adrian Flux Insurance and the BikeSure team."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Helping Jim's to grow in the UK.

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Further has been appointed to provide search and social media marketing for Jim’s Mowing, the largest mowing and gardening franchise in the world.

Jim’s may not be a household name here in the UK right now, but over in Australia New Zealand and Canada it is a brand known to everyone as the ‘franchise’ business covering all sectors from cleaning to gardening.

Further has been appointed to help grow the UK gardening franchise business by carrying out a mix of search and social media marketing, starting immediately with the creation of a dedicated campaign microsite to which all online and offline franchise enquiries will be pushed.

As Further’s Senior Search Consultant on the project, Rob Welsby, “Jim’s is an ambitious company with ambitious targets for UK growth over the next 12 months – and there is no reason to believe such targets cannot be achieved – after all ,we here in the UK are known for our love of gardens and gardening.

“Working alongside the PR and Press activity, our task is to find those who would possibly consider taking on a garden franchise as a new career and deliver them to the microsite to find out more and request an information pack. We will be employing SEO, PPC, online directories and social communities to promote the message.”

Jim's Mowing is one of six new business wins Further has signed in the past month.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

And the bookings just keep on coming!...

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We recently told you about the very early success of our new site and search strategy for Richardsons Boating Holidays.

The new site at www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk was the first ecommerce site the client has had, taking online bookings as well as brochure and booking requests.

Just nine days after launch we reported that the site had taken;

- 39 online bookings totalling £26,683.21
- 96 brochure requests
- nine booking enquiries, from as far afield as Iran

Now, six weeks on, we are really pleased to see that the momentum has continued to build, with the site now having provided;

- 282 booking enquiries totalling..well..a lot of revenue!
- 590 brochure requests
- 90 booking enquiries

This is excellent news for the client who is obviously enjoying a healthy return on investment, but for us possibly the best news of all is that search engines have accounted for over 75% of all site visitors.

A fact which hopefully reinforces a point we are always making to potential clients - about the need for having joined up thinking in online marketing - a search campaign which delivers high volumes of relevant continuous traffic allied to a site which has been designed and built with usability and conversion in mind.This is a perfect example of that theory in action.

Designed and built by Further in seven weeks, the new site replaces the ‘enquiry-only’ site on the existing domain – a domain Further has been driving traffic to for several months using a combination of natural search (SEO) and paid search (PPC) campaigns.

The natural search campaign has seen Richardsons overtake other market-leading brands with 1st position on Google being gained for seven core search terms including most recently, the key industry term 'boating holidays'.

As Emma Day, Marketing Manager at Richardsons commented “we are really pleased with the level of bookings coming through so far. Further’s search marketing work has been continuously increasing our traffic. The new site gives us a new look moving forward, and the addition of online booking was something our research demonstrated needed to happen to keep us in line with consumer expectations. It’s an exciting move forward.”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Freedom success leads to new search projects.

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Following the search marketing progress made during the back end of 2008 for Freedom Holidays (freedomholidayhomes.co.uk) the Kent-based cottage holiday specialists, Freedom’s owners, Norfolk Country Cottages, has appointed Further to carry out SEO for two more companies.

Marsdens Cottage Holidays are the leading holiday cottage letting business in North Devon. Southwold based Suffolk Secrets, meanwhile, offer over 200 self-catering holiday cottages throughout Suffolk.

As Further’s Head of Client Services, Louisa Mann points out “ we have been working very closely with Tom Ellis, Training and Marketing Executive at Norfolk Country Cottages to push Freedom to the top of natural search results – and this latest news means we have the opportunity to build on that relationship. It is a very rewarding feeling when an existing client pushes more work your way. We are confident we can continue to build upon the results and ROI we have delivered to date”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Revving up online performance for Robinsons

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We’re delighted to be working for one of the region’s most respected and prestigious brands in the motor trade, Robinsons Motor Group.

A family-owned business, Robinsons have key regional dealerships for Audi, Mercedes, Smart, Seat, Skoda and VW.

Having recently commissioned a motor industry specialist to build their new site, Further has provided advice and consultancy on SEO best practice for ‘on-site’ issues throughout the build process.

In addition, Further has created a special promotional micro-site to sell high specification Mercedes AMGs and implemented a Paid Search (PPC) campaign to drive potential buyers to the site.

Business Development Manager on Robinsons, Carl Willimott, is keen to see the relationship grow. As he states “Robinsons are a very well known name in the Eastern region and in these difficult times for the motor industry they are looking to online marketing to provide an improved return over traditional marketing and advertising channels. It’s a challenge we are very much looking forward to in 2009.”

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further praise following Claxton project completion

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Claxton Engineering, part of the Acteon Group of companies, appointed us to our first project within the offshore oil sector back in October - a new corporate B2B site followed by an ongoing SEO programme.

As Further Client Services Director Louisa Mann explains "The idea was to bring Claxton's online offering in line with the very best in the sector, working closely with the client's Marketing Co-Ordinator Jamie Hall to create a site which was more contemporary in its look and feel - and easier for visitors to navigate, use and react to. The project has three distinct phases. First came the creation of a new Claxton brand identity. Secondly, the site design and build, and now we will start to drive traffic to the site via an ongoing SEO campaign. "

With the brand completed and the site now live, reaction from the client and other companies within the Acteon Group has been extremely positive.

The client on the project, Jamie Hall, commented "This year Claxton invested heavily in its corporate identity and brand for the first time. Naturally, we had high hopes for the output of such activity. In taking the time to really understand our brief, work with us and listen, Further have outperformed even our highest expectations. As a result, we now have a web presence that ranks among the best in our industry and easily outpaces many of our peers. I am utterly convinced that, through our ongoing SEO activity, Further will add similar value."

You can view the new Claxton Engineering site at www.claxtonengineering.com

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Ooh La Large! France Show 2009 registrations break the 30,000 mark!!

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

By the end of December, we're thrilled to see that ticket registrations for January's France Show 2009 at Earls Court have exceeded all expectations again; and now stand at 34,479.

Last year's search and social media campaign for the client helped the Show to break all recent records; and saw us pick up the CIM Online Effectiveness Award along the way.

This year was always going to be more of a challenge and the campaign has involved a whole host of new initiatives, especially from a social media point of view with viral video and Facebook campaigns helping to bring in new online audiences. Conversion tracking has also shown that the new media partnership with the Telegraph Group has had a positive impact.

As Further Client Services Director Louisa Mann points out, "not only does the traffic have to be delivered, but the site itself has to maximize conversions as the only way to gain tickets before the event opens is to register via the France Show site. Having built the site and carried out the search marketing again this year, we are really pleased with the result. "

The France Show 2009 takes place 9th/10th/11th January at London Earls Court.Tickets are £10 per person and still available at www.thefranceshow.com

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further strengthens development team

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We are delighted to have a new full time developer on board. Colin Watts has just joined us, having relocated from the South Coast where he was responsible for heading up the development team at a Bornemouth digital agency.

A former graduate of Computer Science from De Montfort University, Leicester, Colin brings a wealth of php expertise, which will not only add weight to our site build capacity, but complement the growing search marketing team's needs in the creation of new traffic and link-building initiatives.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Search for RCP Car Parks

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

RCP Car Parks have appointed Further to provide a search marketing programme to promote their growing list of car parks. RCP have been employing Paid Search campaigns to date and this move to Further will see us creating and implementing both Paid and SEO strategies.

‘We’re really pleased to have RCP on board” commented Client Services Director at Further Louisa Mann “They have a good, expanding brand and are forward-thinking in their business model and approach.“

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

A Novelli way to fill an Earls Court show!

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Further adds viral video campaign to national show strategy.

The new campaign, which is now underway, will feature SEO, PPC, blogging and forum population, tactical email and a wider use of social media. As part of a viral marketing programme, Further has recently created, written and directed two ‘mini-movies’ starring top French chef and heart-throb Jean-Christophe Novelli, who will be the main face of the 2009 show, returning to deliver live cookery demonstrations each day in his own entertaining style.

As Further Director Steve Jaggard explains “the Show takes place very soon after Christmas, so we have created this viral campaign around the theme of cooking with a ‘French’ twist for Christmas. Each short film shows Jean-Christophe cooking up a different Christmas dessert – both absolutely delicious alternatives to Christmas pud!”

“Naturally, the commentary provides a direct link to the free cookery demos at the Show and closes with the show URL. The films will then be spread around specialist interest sites, fan pages and forums to create a wider buzz about the show”

The Further team and client are pleasantly surprised to see that over 13,000 tickets have already been registered for on the Further-built instant ticketing site.

The France Show 2009 will take place at London Earls Court, 9th,10th,11th January. You can register for tickets for The France Show 2009 at www.thefranceshow.com

Tickets are free to all those who register before 30th November. After this date, tickets cost £10 per person.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further 'Pay-on-results' PPC

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

You only pay us if we perform for you. Most search agencies claim to offer you the best results. But how many are happy to really put their necks on the line and be paid on results?

Further’s new ‘pay-on-results’ PPC service offers you just that.

You identify your goal. If you are an ecommerce site, then a ‘sale’ is the most obvious. If you are a service-based company then it’s more likely to be a ‘lead’ or ‘enquiry’ to the site which has been delivered by the paid search campaign.

We provide the ongoing expertise to write, monitor, manage and hone the ad campaigns to ensure you achieve the maximum sales, the highest clickthrough ratios and lowest cost per click.

For every goal reached, we take a pre-agreed sum.

It’s a bit of a no-brainer really. You make more sales, you lower your cost per sale and make more profit.

So now you have a choice. Continue to pay your search agency a percentage of your spend each month, no matter how poor the results. Or come to Further where if we don’t perform, you don’t pay us a penny.

To find out more, talk to Louisa, Business Development Manager on 01603 878240 or email louisa@further.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further just the ticket for viagogo

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We are now working with viagogo, one of the UK's leading, and most respected, ticket agencies.

Based in London, viagogo specialise in tickets for all the major sporting and music events.

"We're very excited to now be working with viagogo" said Further Director Steve Jaggard, "they are a progressive business which has made huge strides in this competitive market sector over the past 12 months. It's another great name to add to our growing list of online marketing clients and, as nearly everyone at Further is either a big music or sports fan, it's one that everybody will really enjoy working on. "

Take a look at the site at www.viagogo.co.uk

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Hawaii Five Ohhh

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:15:37 GMT

Further celebrated launching into a Limited Company with a fun 'team building via raft building' exercise last week
at the excellent outdoor activity centre based at Whitlingham, just outside of Norwich.

Splitting into two very competitive teams, (by far the most competitive the venue had ever witnessed) each team was given five barrels, five poles and copious amounts of rope to design - and then build - a raft that would not only float, but stay afloat through 2 hours of mortal combat , oh, and it had to carry seven team members with oars!!!

Before we started, we had witnessed one of this summer's heaviest downpours complete with thunder and lighting. Not to be deturbed, and with true Norfolk spirit, we gritted our teeth and got on with the task in hand !!

Much amusement was had just putting on the waterproofs, lifejackets and helmets...and watching Director Zak at a meagre 6ft 4in, trying to get into a pair or waterproof trousers that were made for primary school children had the party in hysterics long before the games had begun!

Our 'own-designed' vessels came together with surprising speed and each team only had one casualty on launching. Amazingly both rafts worked very well and didn't collapse under our collective weight so we spent the next 2 hours 'messing about on the water' in an assortment of races, finishing off with a tug of war..it was a very close and VERY competitive competition but in the end, 'Without a Paddle' skippered by Mario narrowly won over 'Wrecked' captained by Ryan.....!

Over several beers and a well earned meal we deliberated long and hard over the 'might have beens' of our 'Olympics on the water' . We had all got to know each other better, all done something new, and had all definitely got extremely wet!

Our 'Summer Surprise', as it had been promoted, turned out to be more of a 'Wet Winter Surprise' but it was a great laugh and very exhausting.

Thanks to Rachel for organising it, to Zak's Diner for those incredible desserts, and to Whitlingham Outdoor Centre for putting up with us!

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Introducing the new Further brand identity

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It’s a mantra that’s been shouted from the rooftops by marketeers for years, but one we at Further very much believe in.

So much so that we felt it high time we evolved our own brand in line with the rapid development of the business.

Gone is the burnt orange and grey chunky type. Gone is the snowflake icon. Gone is the descriptor ‘online marketing specialists’

In their place, an energetic new look using greens and blues, accompanied by the single-minded descriptor ‘ search marketing’.

Brand evolution is not just about vanity. You don’t simply do it because you are bored. It’s about portraying the life stages of your organisation. It should signify what the core values and personality of your business today, rather than where you were yesterday.

The new brand, we believe, demonstrates constant movement and progress with the blues and greens adding the dimension of natural growth. The change in the descriptor line spells out how we are now moving forward concentrating on one core area - ‘search marketing’.

We have identified this as the area where we are making the most difference for our clients, and where we combine proven expertise with smart new thinking to provide our clients with outstanding results and return on investment.

"The challenge was to reflect the core values of 'going further' and 'search' commented Roy Smith, the designer responsible for the new look .

"This was achieved by a device that appears to drive forward into the future while at the same time reaching out in every direction. The icon also resembles a subtle iris of the eye to evoke 'search', the main focus of the business.

The classic sans font, Avant Garde, was chosen to echo the circular mark."

Further has moved forward a long way in a very short time. We are hungry, ambitious and have identified our next goals. We very much hope the new brand, which neatly co-incides with our move to Limited Company status, will help us on our way to achieving them.

Look out for it now on all our correspondence and marketing materials. The redesign of this website to adopt the new identity is now underway and will be launched very soon.

We’d welcome your comments on the new brand, good or bad.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Rob joins the search marketing team

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:07:45 GMT

Great news. Rob Welsby has joined us as Senior Search Marketing Consultant.

Rob is a Google Adwords Professional with an impressive track record across paid and natural search. He joins from ZoomZoom, where he was Head of Online Marketing before taking up the post here at Further to work on our growing roster of clients.

Welcome aboard Rob.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further limber up for Fitness Footwear

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Fitness Footwear is an excellent online retailer, stocking some of the largest ranges of footwear from leading brands such as Merrell, Fit-Flops, Crocs, Birkenstock, Simple, Teva and Salomon and have chosen Further as its search marketing partner.

Already a strong site from a technical SEO point of view, Fitness Footwear.com gains a high volume of search traffic. Further has been set with the task of obtaining top rankings for some of their most competitive terms, such as Fit Flops and Merrell Trainers.

Along with a off-site content creation strategy, Further is aiding Fitness Footwear with producing resources pages, optimised for social media traffic, allowing people to interact with the site in a productive way, ensuring long-term and cost-effective link growth and improved rankings for Fitness Footwear.

"Fitness Footwear is a great example of an online retailer doing things correctly" said Further Partner Steve Jaggard. The site is well built, easy to navigate, has all the essential marketing triggers so, not surprisingly, boasts a healthy conversion rate." "From Further's point of view, it is terrific to be working for the first time in the footwear retail sector ensuring Fitness Footwear gains high level exposure for the most searched-for activity brands."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Just one month in, Expedia starts to fly

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Further's recent appointment to provide online marketing for one of the world's top travel brands, Expedia.co.uk, appears to have got off to a very positive start.

That was the view of Andrew Smith, Search Engine Specialist at Expedia.co.uk, following the review of the first month's activity held in London last week.

"From day one we have been impressed with Further but the proof is always in the the traffic and the search engines," he commented. "It is early days, but so far we have been delighted by the progress. They have helped us to achieve some significant gains in a very short space of time - something which is never easy in such a competitive sector."

Further's Online Marketing Manager, Mark Cook, was confident that the early progress can be maintained on competitive terms such as "hotels in New York" and built upon. As he explained, "this is just the start, we believe our strategy will add massive value to Expedia.co.uk as it looks to gain that vital edge over the other major players in the online travel market."

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further scoop CIM award for Online Effectiveness

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It’s one out of one for Further!

In April we decided to enter our first awards - the CIM East of England Marketing Excellence Awards. In May we found out we’d been nominated as one of the three finalists.

And last night the Further team were rewarded for its ‘exceptional online marketing campaign’ for the France Show 2008 campaign by being announced as Winners of the Online Effectiveness Award at the Official Awards Dinner.

According to the judges, this was one of the most hotly-contested categories in this year’s awards and in the final we were up against the excellent Innocent Smoothies campaigns ‘Buy One Get One Tree’ and ‘Village Fete’ created by Soup. The award was sponsored by leading user experience consultancy Foolproof who we must thank for being terrific and generous hosts on the evening.

“Of course, we’re thrilled to get some recognition for the France Show campaign, it is a campaign we’re really proud of - and one which demonstrates what can be done online with a limited budget” said Further Partner Zak Ireson. “This is a campaign which virtually every member of Further became involved in, so it was a true team effort.”

Thanks also to Miller Hogg and his team at Archant Life France for giving us the opportunity to work on The France Show 2008 - we’re looking forward to helping them fill Earls Court in January for France Show 2009, for which tickets are already available on the official site at www.thefranceshow.com

Amongst the other winners on the night were Adnams, White Space and Soup.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further leave others in wake to grab Richardsons

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Richardson's Group, formerly known as New Horizon Holidays, have appointed Further as its chosen partner for online marketing and PPC management.

As a UK-based boating and self catering holiday company, Richardson's Group recognises the importance of online marketing to support its offline advertising and, following a successful pitch process, Richardson's selected Further because of our “professionalism, expertise and online creativity”.

The contract will involve a strategic online marketing campaign including creative link building, online brand awareness, blogging, online pr and paid search (PPC) management.

Prior to the search work beginning,the Further team have been redesigning aspects of the site to allow for better navigation and conversion.

“We’re really pleased to have landed The Richardson's Group as a client” stated Further Partner Steve Jaggard, “they are forward-thinking, understand the power of online and recognise the potential of search marketing in their sector. We know we can do a good job for them and are really looking forward to getting started.”

You can take a look at the Richardsons site at www.richardsonsgroup.net

Also their holiday village website and their boating holidays website

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

SEM delivering 300% return on investment

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

More than two thirds of UK companies utilising SEO (natural search) are gaining in excess of a 300% return on their investment, according to the E-consultancy UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2007 (April 2007)

PPC (pay per click), meanwhile, was also delivering up to 300% ROI for just under half of those surveyed.

Its not surprising therefore that 6 out of 10 marketers are planning to increase both their paid search and natural search budgets over the next 12 months,
a higher percentage than for any other digital marketing channel. If you are not already adding search into your marketing mix, then now is the time to start.

If you want to speak to a company who are delivering this sort of ROI, then look no further than the team here at Further.

Take a look around this site and you will see how we are delivering and for whom. Our client ROI ranges from over 300% to over 1700% for recent campaigns.

This article is brought to you by Further search marketing agency

Further Search Marketing - News

Another creative writer joins SEO team.

A gong for Europe?

Walking Further for charity

Further welcomes new receptionist Ayesha!

Further. Now selling new cars!

SubscriptionSave passes £1m revenue!

Amy and Sarah have entered the building..

Furthering careers at Langley

Fresh new roles here at Further

Further's reaction to the Wikipedia blackout

We wished you a Tacky Christmas...And you obliged!

Baddiel's on board...

Tacky Christmas, everyone!

Further 'grows' back in time...

Captain Cook has left the building

Three fresh faces to bring new strengths to Further.

Further scores twice at The Emirates.

New site launch for TV, radio and video leaders, JMS.

Further Seeks Unexpected Growth in November

Palmers call on Kylie, Kirstie and Further to drive new eCommerce initiative

Unfit Wes challenges himself to reach Everest basecamp for children's hospice.

Further crowned Best Marketing Agency 2011

Further receives double nomination in UK Search Awards

Mattressman wins Further-sponsored Award

New Vacancies at Further

Further shortlisted for 'Best eCommerce Marketing Agency' Award

Strategy, site, search and social for FYFO!

Teams, tablets and Chu'spaper suits!

Zenith Staybrite brightens Furthers day.

John Thew joins Further as MD.

Further appointed to handle search for Chartwell Insurance.

Latest win is totally funky

Further shows growth within UK's top ranks

Great start, let's all stay positive!

Online Retailng seminar. Will there be a spare seat in the house?

Further 'Online Retail' Seminar Announced

Further Xmas Charity Competition winner wins a Kindle

Happy New Year from Further

EDP Future 50 recognition, again!

Motor parts etailer appoints Further to accelerate growth.

Aviva Search Manager joins Further

Country clothing site goes live on FurtherCommerce platform

Further's charity 'Coffee Hour' has raised £264 so far!

UK's largest online furniture retailer appoints Further

Leading eCommerce player sees 329% increase in revenue from organic search !

Further to sponsor brand new Tourism award

Unbelievable piece of work for Robinsons

Please support the Further 3 - theyll need it!

Social slot earns plaudits at CIM Digital Conference.

So close, but no cigar this time.

Ben joins Search Marketing team

Big news for online retailers coming 1st June!!

Finalists for the Big One!

Further leaves its Mark on national consumer electronics conference.

Further ranked 25 in NMA Top Search Agencies List

LondonSEO - The drinks are on us!

Four new sites launched

Mazda appoints Further for search.

The Joy of Socks

New Account Manager appointed.

There's only one SEO agency for Two Seasons.

There's snow stopping those France Show visitors.

Further off to flying start to 2010.

Further's £400 tweet for Childrens Society

From today....you tweet, we donate!

Presentation to local businesses shows growing interest in social media

France Show 2010. Tickets break the 30,000 mark!

As seen in .Net magazine

Economy Car Hire park SEO account at Further

Magazines site launches as Christmas gift shopping starts.

Small business, big SEO exposure.

Further wins "Best New Business" award.

New luxury holiday site launched

£255 for a worthy cup of coffee!

New Further/CIM Survey reveals marketing beyond recession

Further founders named in Future 50 Entrepreneurs List

Further fully adopts search for charity

Further boosts its paid credentials.

Best New Business Finalists

Further crowned Best Marketing Agency 2011

Strategy, site, search and social for FYFO!  

Zenith Staybrite brightens Furthers day.

Please support the Further 3 - theyll need it!

Social slot earns plaudits at CIM Digital Conference.

Further boosts its paid credentials.

Further finally loses its online tag.