“Enjoyed the method of delivery and the presentation”
PG Harris

“Great Seminar! Lots of useful information gleaned this evening”
Darren Pullin

“Very Approachable & Helpful”
Gillian Hocking

“Brilliant, very informative”
S Fritche

“Excellent course.  Extremely informative and very useful and pitched as to not dazzle the technophobes”
Helen Pritchard

“Well explained and structured…”
AD Kibby, McCann Erickson

“All of it! - back to basics yet clear, useful, actionable”
Barbara Hollyhead, International Marketing Manager

“Spoke at a level which I felt was appropriate.  He didn’t avoid technical issues, but didn’t use too much jargon.  Clear concise and interesting”
Emma Garland

“Enthusiasm; relevant; many techniques…”
Stuart White, Consultant, Trimedia Harrison Cowley

“Specific techniques to save time and/or money…”
Brian Potter, Director, Business Expansion Consultants Ltd

“Introduction to ‘new for me’ subject”
Anare Korynevsky, European Sales Director, Cooper Tire Ltd

“A lot of ground covered”
Mark Jennings, Business Development  Manager, Bartec Auto Id Ltd

An excellent trainer/presenter who made complete sense of a subject that can cause total technical blindness!  Excellent and very enjoyable.”
Lesley Audley, Marine Matters.

“Where can you start, it was all Good,”
Mark McArdle, Director, Blue Light Healthcare Ltd

“Interaction with group, clearly spoken and passionate.”
Tim McVea, Swansea University

“Speaker found out about our businesses beforehand and was able to apply theory to business.”

Tailor Made - good examples and approachable
Mags Walters, Visit Carmarthenshire

“Very motivating speaker” 
Ruth O’Malley Marketing Manager, National Wetland Centre

“Eye opening what the technology can do and how it works.”
Kevin H Thomas Director, F&T Refrigeration Ltd

“Nigel was excellent, holding interest at all times.”
Lesley Audley, Marine Matters.

“Overall, very very good.”
Liz Evans, Marketing Solutions

“All Interesting,”
Raymond Jones, Marketing Solutions

“Real Examples / Interaction.”
Adrian Lewis, Commercial Director, Codel Software Ltd

“Pace, content, delivery, relevance, immaculate”
Richard Jackson, Business Development Manager, Barclays Bank

“Interaction.”
Matthew Norman, Director, Creative in Colour Ltd

“Plain easily understood language.”
Jeff Lane, Barclays Bank.

“All”
Craig Toutt, Totalcare Osteopathic clinic

“Very Informative all through.”
Sue Jones, South Wales Heating

So often we find clients and delegates commenting about things beyond our control, such as the temperature of the room or the lack of coffee (but not when they are at our premises!).

Often people wanted more time, or to ask more questions...

“Not long enough!”
Richard Jackson, Business Development Manager, Barclays Bank

“Time Restriction, that’s all,”
Mark McArdle, Director, Blue Light Healthcare Ltd

“No”
Brian Potter, Director, Business Expansion Consultants Ltd

“Generally everything was good”
Anare Korynevsky, European Sales Director, Cooper Tire Ltd

“There wasn’t one!”
Chris Kidd, Director, Marketing Connections

“Would like the course over 1-2 days”
Mark Jennings, Business Development  Manager, Bartec Auto Id Ltd

“Too much - but all useful”
Clive Turner, Business Development Manager, EEF Western (Engineering Employers Federation)

As previously we often find that the comments refer to insufficient time or wanting more of the same or similar information ... another common request is for more time for questions and answers or individual discussions

“More time...”
Jane Davidson, Marketing Manager

“I would like to carry this on for a full day...”
Steve Evans

“More in depth.”
David Luetchford, Director, Mendez Marine Ltd

“I have just watched a presentation by Nigel at West Berkshire Business Club, very interesting, well presented, this chap knows his stuff! If you need anyone to do a presentation for you I should contact him.”

Tony, www.ecademy.com

“I wanted to thank you for the talk you gave to the Bristol Branch of the Chartered Institute of Marketing on e-marketing.  Not only was is one of our best attended events this year – demonstrating the topicality of the subject – but we also had very good feedback from the event. 

Delegates obviously liked the lively presentation and your relaxed style, and you gave them plenty of tips and techniques for them to take away, providing them with something tangible of value from the evening.  As discussed, I would be interested in talking to you further about other e-marketing/e-business related events for the CIM for next year’s programme.”

Rachel Wheatley, Head of Marketing

“Thank you again for your contribution to the AmperSAND events programme which gave our delegates another chance … following on from your presentation the previous year.  We received good feedback again from the delegates … among the comments were the following:

• Excellent speaker

• Engaging speaker, interesting points, no jargon

• Excellent presentation – first class transfer of knowledge

• Though provoking

• Interesting speaker with good opportunities for interaction

Thanks again and no doubt we will be having you back again next year for another in the series on e-marketing and promotion.”

Felicity Blastland, SAND Director, Swansea Metropolitan University

“I would like to take this opportunity to that you for running the recent workshop on behalf of the Carmarthenshire Chamber.  It was an excellent event and is something the Chamber valued and will replicate in the future.

The feedback from our members who attended the session was very positive and they all found the content of your workshop and your delivery of the subject to be very clear, informative and entertaining.  As you know, we have since had several requests for us to arrange a follow on workshop …”

Barry Hale, CEO Carmarthenshire Chamber

“British Marine Federation, the trade association for the Leisure Boating Industry in the UK, is delighted to be working with Nigel T Packer to provide Web Marketing training for our members.  We are keen to ensure that our members have access to top quality training in this area.

In today’s market place, Nigel provides valuable information and advice on how to improve a website and make it work for customers, thus improving the performance of your company.  His experience on this subject is vast and, coupled with an infection enthusiasm, this course is excellent.”

Liv Whetmore, British Marine Federation,

From The British Marine Federation

Making the most of Internet Marketing

The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in the marketing of all businesses. Statistics show a dramatic increase in online commercial activity and a new course run by the BMF has been established to allow members to make the most of the new opportunities to promote their businesses online and maximise sales potential.

The new BMF Web Marketing course is run by Nigel T Packer of Business for Business, an Internet Marketing Training and Consultancy company. Nigel says Internet Marketing is a subject which many businesses need to focus on in today's competitive marketplace. "Over 90% of websites set up by UK businesses don't fulfill the expectations of their owners or provide the services customers want," he comments.

As the training course reassuringly shows, the solutions are much more manageable and less expensive than people might think. "Making just small changes to a website can levitate names to the top of a search engine for example," adds Nigel. "Also websites need to go back to the basic principles about the importance of the customer."

A key aspect of the course underlines the need to look at a website from the users' perspective.  This means removing any features which can frustrate or create barriers to visitors – it's all too easy to click that back button and go somewhere else. It is also important to avoid being formulaic in the layout of a site. Often companies make the mistake of completely handing over the design of a website to a third party who may not know much about the marine industry or more specifically the needs of the business. Businesses also need to give less of a priority to aspects such as corporate information which frankly may not be relevant to the customer.

Nigel sums up the message: "The site from day one should be looking at how we can provide information which customers are looking for so that they can engage with our business and either contact us or make a purchase from our website." And those purchases are growing all the time. "In the UK alone in the first 6 months of this year [2008] £26.5 billion was spent online which represents 17% of all UK sales," says Nigel. "Forecasters predict that 50% of all retail sales will be online in the next 5 years."

Whether a company sells or promotes products and services via a website, the Internet as a marketing tool is one of the most economical ways of reaching customers. But it can also be a drain on the marketing budget if the money is spent in the wrong places. Sign up to the BMF Web Marketing Course and start making the most out of your website and, marketing budget, now.

How to make the most of your website

A company website is a powerful marketing tool, but how to make it as effective as possible poses its own challenges.  Which sort of layout will work best for your business and what sort of things should you be talking to your web designer about? How do you increase your profile with search engines? When people visit your site how are you going to keep them interested? All these questions and many more are covered by the Web Marketing Training Course run by the BMF.

Loretta Cuoghi of Harken UK recently attended the course and says it was particularly helpful in the re development of their website, which features Harken sailing wear and accessories. “We were in the middle of revamping our site and the course was good because it gave us a lot of pointers that we otherwise wouldn’t have known about,” says Loretta. “It cleared up a lot of the confusion and it was really interesting learning about how to improve people’s searches for example.”

Loretta is part of the marketing team at Harken and says that the website is going to be playing an increasingly important role in their marketing strategy in the future. “We’re going away from printed adverts to having more of an online presence with other online media,” she commented. “So the website is something we want to be constantly aware of and improve on.”

To do this they have employed the services of a web design company and attending the course gave the team at Harken a much better understanding of how to brief the designer. “It gave us the tools to be able to put together an agenda regarding the things we want to discuss,” says Loretta. She adds that not everything on the course was about new ideas, but going on it gave them the opportunity to really concentrate specifically on how the they want the website to work: “A lot of it is common sense really, but having somebody point things out, clear up areas of uncertainty and reiterate what needs to be done really helps focus the mind.”

The Web Marketing course is run by Nigel Packer of Business for Business, an Internet Marketing Training and Consultancy company.  It is not a technical course, and those attending do not need any prior knowledge of website development or internet marketing.  Delegates will also receive Nigel’s new book ‘Internet Marketing – How to get a website that works for your business.”

The course initially ran over a half day but due to its success it is now a day course. As with all training courses, time is undoubtedly going to be an issue for some companies who may like the sound of getting a more dynamic website, but feel they just can’t spare the time for staff to attend. Loretta says however that in her experience any time spent training is time well spent.  “If we decide we need to go on a BMF course then we always make the time for it and make it a priority,” she concludes. “We also went on a BMF Customer Service course specifically for a Boat Show and we find it is always really worth making time for the courses and we have never been disappointed.”

www.britishmarine.co.uk/services/training/

Presentation for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Cardiff
14th July 2009

Many thanks again for your contribution, as you will see from the feedback the event was well received, of those who expressed an opinion 100% would recommend the event to others.  It’s clear that this is a topic to which we shall have to return.

Richard Houdmont, Director for Wales, CIM

Comments received from delegates:

• Many thanks for the great presentation this morning I took away a lot of ideas and thoughts that I am now putting into practice.
  Emma Gould, Terram Ltd

• I very much enjoyed your presentation (and style of presenting) at yesterday's CIM event.
  Dr Gavin Davies CChem, MRSC, MCIM, Chartered Marketer, Marketing Manager, Markes International Ltd.

• I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation yesterday.
  Pauline Lomax, Marketing Officer, Howell's School, Llandaff, GDST

• Thank you for the interesting and interactive presentation that you gave yesterday, I really enjoyed it.
  Emma-Jane Gwen, Communications Officer - Teacher Education Services - International Baccalaureate

• Tuesday was a very interesting morning and time well spent. I'm already looking at my notes
  Siân Griffiths Marketing Manager / Rheolwr Marchnata Ufi / Learndirect Cymru

• A personal thank you for all of your presentations yesterday, I found the whole morning really useful.
  Mell Tymm, Brand Manager BBI Healthcare Ltd / Cedar Health

• I very much enjoyed your session and will be purchasing a copy of your book as a follow up.
  Kind Regards 
  Debbie Keogh, Sales and Marketing Manager - Derwen Aggregates Ltd 

• Many thanks for providing an interesting and insightful presentation. 
  Tania Richards
  Pathway Support Manager, Cardio Respiratory Medicine, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport

• Very thought provoking!
  Mrs Joanne Stark, Marketing Manager, SIG Specialist Construction Products

• Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation
  Nicola Smith, Principal Tourism Officer, Monmouthshire County Council

Website review feedback

What a pleasure it was to meet you both yesterday and feel confident that I was listening to people who really knew what they were talking about...thank you once again, it was an afternoon really well spent.

Feedback from SEO and web copy project

My company's new site has now been live two weeks in that time we have generated 9 good quality appointments from the site as a result of having good ranking positions on the site engines for the majority of our keyword combinations.

The business we have wrote from the site in the last two weeks is 15% more than we had achieved in the previous 3 years on our original site.

As well as using your skills to write the code for the site to maximise customer searches, your ability to ask the questions that matter most to customers & then intelligently drop those questions in to the content of the site has given us a product that has increased our profile more than any public relations campaign would.

I would have no hesitation in recommending your services in the future ...

Website review - ongoing

... Following the web diagnostic we had with you earlier in the year we've made a lot of changes to the existing website but we now have even better news, we're getting a brand new website done which will be ready for launch in August!

We were very impressed with the last diagnostic and were hoping that we could book another one with you to analyse the new website before it goes live... d'you have a few dates available ...