Executive Summary

1. Executive Summary • The ECP is a network of business consultants working together in a partnership and co-operative business structure, similar to that operated by John Lewis. • By using this model our consultants and clients truly value working in a partnership and are all able to collaborate to bring innovative solutions to the challenges faced by new and established business enterprises and other organisations. What does this really mean? • To provide client companies with access to high quality local talent across all business disciplines without the serious overhead and costs of major consultancy brands. • The motivation for client organisation to utilise ECP is that their payments are going to support members of the local community not multinational concerns.

2. Why this domain name was chosen & Business Modus Operandi • The Enterprise Consultancy Partnership (ECP) was chosen after careful thought and consideration into the type of market this business is entering. This is a fiercely competitive market for any young business to enter. • The USP that this business has is in the name and nature of the Consultancy Business. The Enterprise Consultancy Partnership was formed with a view to engaging and forming partnerships amongst local business consultants, this business model will bring together consultants and advisors that would normally be considered competitors. • The idea to collaborate and combine forces not only benefits ECP but will benefit the local community and business partners alike, all revenue streams will be monitored by way of an honour agreement, and contracts, between all participants. This operational mode will collate all business centrally with an equal distribution of revenue to all members. • All members that operate within this scheme will agree to donate 5% of gross revenue to a ring fenced account; this will be used to generate a co – operative style disbursement system, with dividends paid to all members annually. A local charity will be chosen by the highest performing Consultants to receive a donation annually. • The EnterpriseConsultanctPartnership.com domain was purchased after combining all keywords and phrases that relate to the business ethos that we hope to aspire to, link below: • http://www.enterpriseconsultancypartnership.com/

3. Target Audience Engagement – first stage anonymous masses • When creating a website for a new company it is vital that the website optimises the target audiences engagement. This is important; as for a new company the main aim is survival. For survival to take place means that the company must have a customer base, target audience engagement is a method used to connect with potential customers to persuade them to purchase with your company. • There are 3 main stages of target audience engagement that will be used with the www.enterpriseconsultancypartnership.comwebsite. The first stage anonymous masses, there are thousands of potential customers who don’t know you exist, the website will have different social media sites run along side the website to help raise awareness of the company and to help the findability of the company. “we discovered that 47% of small business owners with a Facebook page see a significant amount of traffic go through their Facebook page onto their website, even better is that 48% of those polled said a portion of the new visitors converted to paying customers.” (Marketing, 2011) Recent polls show that Facebook pages for business help increase awareness and help to direct traffic onto the website so a Facebook page will be created to help achieve this. An advertisement will be placed in the local newspapers to reach out to potential customers who do not have access to Facebook. Here is an example of a live consultancy business with their social media page on Facebook, they have over 9500 followers which could all be potential customers if the right actions are followed.

4. This is the flyer that will be used at different events to help promote the business. The leaflet was designed using fireworks and after many different examples the finished product was aesthetically pleasing and easy to read.

5. The second stage, Observers. • The second stage is the observers. These are the people who have shown some interest within the company. The website will have an easy sign up feature where viewers can sign up to receive the latest news letters, offers and information regarding the company. In the second stage of target audience engagement regards to providing the customers who have shown interest with further in debt and high quality information. If the customers have signed up to receive the latest information, the company will send out a welcome email to the customers giving further information on the services that we provide in the hope to persuade them to book a session. “Your first objective is to create alignment” (Herding, 2012) • Attached is a good example of an email which grabs the attention from the reader. Although this company is not a consultancy company the email is a good example of the type of emails businesses send out to engage the audience. The email has good call to action and great headers stating the latest offers to try and persuade the reader to book with them. Our enterprise business will be following the same method and emailing the customers who sign up to receive the latest news.

6. The 3rd stage – repeat business • The third step is all to do with repeat business and engagement. If a customer has booked a session with our company we want to do everything we can to try and ensure they return for more. To do this the company will ensure we keep in contact regular with the customer and make them feel import. The company will ensure to contact the client and use their name on emails or phone calls to make it more personal so that they feel valued. The group are in discussions on different methods to help increase the number of returning customers through target audience engagement and one of the option is to have a loyalty scheme where if a customer books 3 sessions they get there next session at half price. These types of methods help to persuade people to book back with the company, which will help the company to survive.

7. Connecting the site to the web and audience sectors – Social Media • As with any business public relations (PR) is key in shaping the business image and reputation. Online PR helps a company to shape the business reputation well in order to attract more customers. There are many different areas of online pr, which can all have a positive effect on your business image and reputation. • Bucks Enterprise Partnership knows and understands how important online pr is and will be ensuring we do everything as a company to optimize our pr. The first step that the business will take to reaching out to the target market is to create and run different social media platforms. It’s critical for anyone involved in SEO, Content Marketing or PR to get to grips with existing mass market social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube. (Goodall, 2013) The team will be setting up our own Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube accounts. • Social media is one of the leading methods of customers tracking your latest news and promotions and keeping up to date with what is going on regarding the company. We will employ a member of staff to run all of the pages and answer any queries from customers. Social media is a great method of online pr as companies can regular post statuses and keep customers updated with promotion. If customers have any problems, questions or enquire social media can be an instant response with it being very easy to reply to tweets and messages and the company can also upload photos showing projects so far which will help give the company a good reputation. With “more than 25 million small businesses having Facebook pages” (Levy, 2013) it is an ideal place to reach out to your customers and build up a good reputation.

8. About Social Media Social Media is a useful tool in giving vast numbers of potential customers information about the service on offer. Social Media also helps direct customers to your own homepage or other sites that you have as a company. Choosing your Social Media platform is important as Facebook is more for everyone, where as LinkedIn is targeted specifically for business people or who have some involvement in business. The Social Media outlets, Enterprise Consultancy Partnership will be using are the following: Facebook is a great Social Media tool to use in getting brand awareness and getting the required information to the potential customers. The reason for this is as of “March 2013 Facebook has 1.11 Billion users of all ages and experience” ECP want to utilise this and get our information to as many people as possible. LinkedIn is a great platform to get in contact with current business owners or businesses that are just starting. As business owners or general managers are the target market for the consultancy , LinkedIn will be the most important marketing tool. “In the UK LinkedIn has passed 15 million users” which will be ECP’s target market and this market is where all the information should be directed at.

9. Mobile APP There are many points that need to be remembered if making a mobile app for your company. Emails that have been opened by a handheld device “accounted for 47% of all email opens.” (Lee, 2013) This is evidence of how crucial it is to have a running mobile app. By creating a mobile app for Enterprise Consultancy Partnership it will increase traffic. Making sure load time for the website and mobile app is crucial as most people are only willing to wait up to 5 seconds maximum before they go elsewhere. Search Engine Optimisation is a must when it comes to the mobile app and website, as without it customers will not be able to find the company app leaving the creation of the website and app pointless.

10. Banner Advertising Banner advertising is a graphic on a webpage that has a built in hyperlink to take the clicker (See search engine marketing slide) to the company’s page relating to the information shown. The way in which ECP will utilise this would be by putting up banner ads on sites such as LinkedIn and other professional sites which will create another lane of traffic to our site and increase custom.

11. Brand engagement, buzz building • Bucks Enterprise Partnership is keen to use brand engagement as a way to build valuable links and to help create a good brand image. The group will monitor different forums and blogs related to small business and were we feel necessary we will start communicating with the people in the forum talking about our services and trying to build links. • The group have stated their desire to create different buzz building activities. For every offline piece of work the website will always be stated to help create link between offline and online pr and direct people onto our website. “Record video testimonials from your customers and upload to your website and YouTube. These are powerful visuals.” (Examiner , 2013) The company are very keen to build up some buzz and excitement around the business, with our YouTube account we will be creating an exciting and engaging video to share on our social media platforms to gain awareness and attract potential customers. • Attached is a picture of different blogs on the internet where business owners require help and assistance regarding their business. Our company will monitor these pages and at the bottom different comments and replies can be made which is where we will offer our services, promote our business and start building business links on different business forums.

12. Copywriting Copywriting • The main method to ensure the company is copywriting correctly is to have the mind set that your viewers or customers have very limited knowledge. The website should try to avoid using complex content that users will struggle to understand. “A simple mnemonic for web copywriting is CRABS: aim for chunking, relevance, accuracy, brevity and scannability” (Chaffey, 2013) • On the web pages the group will ensure that there are chunky sections of text with up to 6 lines of writing with different sub headings. This will allow users to scan the paragraphs and grab the necessary information, the text will be accurate and relevant and brief. This method allows the users to not be overwhelmed with too much information and to find the relevant information that they require. This method will help keep the customers viewing the pages and navigating through the website to hopefully book a session. •  Ease of use = structure + navigation + page layout + interaction •  The formula above relates to the factors needed to encourage customers to return to the website. Having a good structure with god subheadings and good paragraphs layouts are very important to achieving a good website which customers will enjoy. The team will try to consider the formula when designing the website as without obtaining customers a business is not successful.

13. Research – Focus Group results • A focus group was held on 20 March 2014 to obtain feedback, opinions and recommendations from a group of second year business and will fit the future target market of the Enterprise Consultancy Partnership. The focus group was combined with the last assignments questions were two different questionnaires and websites were shown to the focus group to obtain feedback for both coursework 2 and coursework 3.

14. Focus group – further results.

15. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Traffic Building Techniques: Search engine Marketing(SEM) Email: Opt in Email push notifications Meta data Affiliate Marketing

16. Search Engine Marketing • This type of marketing (SEM) is probably the most important to any business that uses digital marketing, not just to promote goods and services, but also to gain and retain customers (Smith, 2013) • SEM can highlight the importance of Search Engine Results Page (serps) and is discussed in the Meta data section of this report, these methods will be used within the Enterprise Consultancy Partnership (ECP) website. • There are two main SEM techniques in use to highlight brand awareness and to sell products and services: • Search Engine optimization (SEO) • Pay Per Click (PPC) • Why companies use SEM: • SEM is a combination of keyword usage and phrases used to describe your website, services, products etc. ECP will utilise this method and will be considering PPC as a means of promoting the website within serps, see figure 1 in body of evidence. This method can gain a prominent position on the serp, see Business Advisors prime position -figure two in body of evidence, this is by way of purchasing AdWords through google AdWords. • The Cost is incurred when a visitor is directed to your website through this ad. • This type of advertising is segmented to your particular business sector; this is achieved through keyword search and key phrase usage.

17. Email: • Email push notifications will be utilised to contact customers, this will be through an opt- in policy. This will be achieved, initially, through the landing page; this will be a call to action, in that the potential client details will be collected here. All companies now realise the legality of sending unsolicited emails. • Why companies use opt in email: • Email marketing can enhance the company brand and logo, the company can, and this company will be utilising this method, use bold colours and fonts to recreate the brand image and styles. • When customers receive personalised emails, with their name attached this in turn may enable relationships to be formed and lead to return custom and brand awareness. (Tricia, 2014)

18. Meta Data • Meta data will be used to enhance and optimize Search Engine Results Page (SERPS) listings (Smith, 2013) Meta tags are displayed here and are typically displayed in the serps, see figure 1 body of evidence. The use of Meta data to enhance the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) within Enterprise Consultancy Partnership (ECP) webpage will be an amalgamation of Keywords found within the document title, the description of the HTML <head> - Meta tag and as a summary of keywords and content; these will be set by one of the ECP design team. • Keywords used at present are Enterprise, Consultancy, Partnership, Business, Advisory, business advisor, business consultant, business consulting services, business advice. • The key terms that came up for the researched businesses in this category were: • Management consulting • Business planning • Strategic business planning • Business assistance • Business goals • Business administration

19. Meta Data • All of these terms can be found amongst the top ten businesses’ researched in this category, one search returned no result: • http://www.businessadvisersdirect.co.uk/ • http://www.oxonbe.co.uk • http://www.westbury.co.uk/ • http://www.advisorsforbusiness.co.uk • http://www.harrowinbusiness.com/about-us/business-advisors/ • http://lgba.co.uk/ • http://www.laudis.co.uk/ • http://www.cambridgebusinessadvisors.co.uk/ • http://tvba.co.uk/ • One of the business scraped displayed no returns for any of the categories searched, this could be for a number of reasons, one being a wrongly listed web address, see next slide for statistics gathered. • Why companies use Meta data: • Meta data is used to aid and enhance listings and rankings within Google search. This enables potential customers to find your company easily, this can also aid call to action events for promotional drives and special offers.

20. Scraped websites for analytics & Comparison Scrape results: when the top ten sites were scraped this returned one site with no analytics.

21. Affiliate Marketing • Affiliate Marketing: • Affiliate marketing is the ultimate form of marketing communications (Smith, 2013)this is a form of Pay Per Performance and will be used (if undertaken) and utilised by a third party SEO specialist on the ECP website and promotional drive. This part of the business is best to be handed over to an SEO specialist company due to the time and expertise required for this type of project and has to be monitored in real time, this will be considered in the second quarter of the business. • Why companies use Affiliate Marketing: • This type of online marketing is paid to a third party when they pass a sale over to the paying client. This can be on a percentage basis and is paid per sale or (Smith, 2013) lead. • This can raise brand awareness through third party sites, thereby increasing the profile in markets where your business may not normally operate. This can be costly too, since some operators are paying up to 40% per sale (Tims, 2011).

22. Search Results Page(serps) Pay Per Click and AdWords allow the business to gain a higher a higher listing on the serps, this will be used by EnterpriseConsultancyPartnersip. Illustrated above.

23. WIREFRAME Wireframes are used to reference the layout of a webpage involving navigation and outlines where everything is going to be on the website. A wireframe allows website creators to look at the outline of what the site should look like without thinking about the style or colouring of that site. (Chaffey, D 2013) This is the first wireframe created for the ECP website and was the foundation for the outline of the landing page. 0.1.1 The social media buttons, including email and linked in, are a call to action for website viewers. 0.1.2 The ECP logo placed right in the centre of the page. Helps increase brand identity. 0.1.3 The drop down menu bar. Call to action for viewers to explore the ECP website. 0.1.4 A large image to be placed horizontally below the menu bar; and spread across the page. 0.1.5 An introduction to our website and who we are and what we do. 0.1.6 Quick, easy read bullet points explaining how we can help you or your business. This was the original wireframe for the ECP website and was used as a guideline to creating a good layout that is appealing and not too word heavy, there were some changes to the final wireframe that benefits the layout of the site by removing lengthy bits of text.

24. WIREFRAME The final wireframe is similar to the original with just a few things moving places to make a more compact, sleek and complete website for a better quality view for audiences. This is the final wireframe that is going to be used as a layout for the ECP website and will outline the ECP landing page. 0.2.1 The name of the business to the left of the page, next to the logo. 0.2.2 The ECP logo placed in the middle right of the page. Helps increase brand identity. 0.2.3 The social media buttons, including email and linked in, are a call to action for website viewers. 0.2.4 The drop down menu bar. Call to action for viewers to explore the ECP website. 0.2.5 A bold title with a catch line. 0.2.6 An introduction to our website and who we are and what we do. 0.2.7 A call to action button. Clicking on this takes viewers to the contact form page. 0.2.8 A medium image to be placed below the menu bar and next to the website introduction.

25. TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS Content Management Systems (CMS) are web based publishing systems that allow users to easily edit website content before and after it has been published. (Rouse, M. 2011) Little or no expertise is needed to use content management systems as they do not require specialist skills such as the ability to edit html. ECP are using weebly as its content management system, the site was created on weebly and will forever be edited and updated on weebly. Weebly does support E-Commerce options such as online web store and accepting payments into merchant accounts/PayPal accounts for a small fee, however after looking into this it is not required by ECP due to the nature of the business; it will not be selling any products or services online through the website. There are, however some drawbacks to using a CMS/weebly such as limited editing abilities within the site, and more complex files are difficult to manage and may not be supported.

26. BRANDING & GRAPHIC DESIGN Fonts : The default theme font was used throughout the website to keep everything the same and looking professional, this is how we want ECP to be identified by customers as professional and thorough. Colours: The website has a plain whitish/grey background, this allows easy viewing and causes no image or text clash options. The grey colour menu bar and call to action buttons are a contrast to the background but gives off a suit and tie executive feel that is expected from a consultancy company. The colour scheme was especially chosen to keep a formal outlook and create an identity for the company that is seen as an executive company. Theme: The theme to the right was the perfect choice for the foundation of the ECP website as it looks modern and simplistic, whilst maintaining a business feel with fully customisable pages. This theme was selected to create a brand identity for the company as a simple to use, but high quality service.

27. BRANDING & GRAPHIC DESIGN Logo & Branding: The ECP logo is the most important factor in terms of creating a brand identity for the company because it is the logo that the company want people to recognize it for. As the business is a Consultancy Partnership a fancy logo is not needed, simplicity is most effective for ECP’s logo and perfect for use on advertising merchandise such as leaflets and flyers. Pictures: These are important for the website to draw away from the grey scale colouring and add some high quality pictures to represent the business to a high standard. All pictures used on the ECP website are professional and are not colourful because that is not a proper representative of the company.

28. GOOGLE ANALYTICS Google analytics will be used to analyse traffic generated by the ECP website. Google analytics can tell how audiences have arrived at the website and can create charts based of different types of traffic; search traffic, referral traffic and direct traffic. (Chaffey, D. 2013) A Google analytics tracking code has been integrated into the ECP website for tracking and analysis of website users’ data. “The Audience reports provide insight into the demographics of your audiences: Go to Audience > Demographics. Your mix of new and return users and the level of engagement of your users. Go to Audience > Behaviour. The browsers and networks being used to access your site/app. Go to Audience > Technology. The mobile devices being used to access your site/app. Go to Audience > Mobile”. (Google, 2014)

29. GOOGLE ANALYTICS With Google analytics you can set goals for your website to achieve through audience activity. There is a maximum of 20 goals than can be set at one time. (Chaffey, D, 2014) The ability to set goals via Google analytics creates objectives and targets for ECP to meet, it allows them to keep track of their goals and will be notified when a goal is met as soon as logged into Google analytics. If ECP does not meet its goal within 1 month then it is obvious that ECP needs to find an innovative way to make sure those goals are met. ECP should consider to set realistic goals as a new company rather than going for 100 purchases within 1 month etc. ECP currently have 2 goals set, to find out where most viewers are coming from location wise and to see how many people visit and complete the contact us form.

30. PESTLE & SWOT Analysis. An aid for funding • A PESTLE & SWOT analysis will be presented to the bank for funding purpose’s mid summer • Funding will be required to employ a salesman, with initial promotional work carried out by him/her

31. Revenue

32. This revenue model will be used in an initial three month promotional push. If the model is sustainable then this will be rolled out over the next year

33. Consultancy base rate from 1 company See financial projections for an in depth revenue forecast.

34. Financial projections

35. Business Advisors survey • A survey of Business Professionals was carried out for a two-fold evaluation • The reasons were to evaluate the implementation of critical success factors in Small Business Advisors for Small Business coursework 1 2 and 3(CW2 Small Business March 2014) • The other reason was primary research and networking with local professionals, within H.Wycombe for the Enterprise Consultancy Partnership

36. Business Advisors survey 5 out of 10 answered this with 60% of Business Advisors being the highest respondents.

37. Continued The defining factor here is that most businesses asked , replied with growth & maturity being the stage achieved.

38. Cont’d Does the management information system provide the necessary information to monitor CSF Performance at the appropriate level of management?

39. Conclusions of survey • A synopsis of survey results show that, Business Advisors all relate to growth and maturity when asked the defining factor in business • All survey facts and figures will be presented to the bank for funding in the summer months

40. Conclusion • The group will use social media as a main way to reach out to the target audience and to meet potential customers. • The website will have an email sign up option as a way for the company to reach out to the potential customers who are interested in gaining further information. • The company will offer a loyalty system with offering returning customers discounts on future bookings. • A specific member of staff will be employed to monitor and run the social networking sites and to monitor different forums where our services could be appreciated to help reach out to customers, build links and grow a good reputation. • The wireframe was used as a draft for the layout and navigation of the website, a 2nd wireframe was used to finalize the website and make sure the layout and navigation matched that of the 2nd wireframe. • CMS is a good option for ECP as the website needs only simple context such as texts and pictures and does not need an E-commerce store or payment options because ECP will not ever sell products through the website. • The company’s logo is important because it is a form of brand identity and will need to feature on everything the company is involved in from business cards to leaflets to social networks to advertising banners etc. • Google analytics is a superb way to track audience data in one place and review the data to find out what is going right for the company and what areas of the company need more spotlight, Google analytics audience report allows us to view what technology hardware has been used to access our website e.g. laptop or tablet PC. It also allows us to set goals and notifies us when we have completed those goals. Analytics allows us to determine what area of the country ECP is mostly recognized in with GPS data logging of users around the UK.

41. The Consultancy website at present • www.enterpriseconsultancypartnership.com • Print screens of the current website are to follow this slide. • The website has been published for this modules use at present • There is still a lot of work to be carried out to bring the website up to the professional level expected in this field

42. About us webpage

43. What we do page

44. Resources page

45. Consultancy service

46. Traffic Building Page

47. This page is part of the ongoing traffic building webpage design & layout

48. This is part of a hidden page for internal reference purposes only

49. References Facebook Statistics. (1, 1 2014). Retrieved 04 03, 2014, from Statistic Brain: http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics/ LinkedIn statistics. (2014). Retrieved 04 03, 2014, from Socailbakers: http://www.socialbakers.com/linkedin-statistics/ E Consultancy. (2014). E Consultancy. Retrieved 02 28, 2014, from Find out more: https://econsultancy.com/ Lee, K. (2013, 10). 8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies. Retrieved 05 08, 2014, from Buffer: http://blog.bufferapp.com/8-effective-email-strategies-backed-by-research Rose, K. (2014, 01 06). UK Social Media Stats 2014. Retrieved 04 03, 2014, from Socialmedia today: http://socialmediatoday.com/kate-rose-mcgrory/2040906/uk-social-media-statistics-2014

50. References – work cited. • Examiner . (2013, October). 10 ways to build some buzz for your biz. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/article/10-ways-to-build-some-buzz-for-your-biz • Goodall, M. (2013). Social Media and Online PR. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from The Search Laboratory : http://www.searchlaboratory.com/blog/2014/03/social-media-and-online-pr-trends-dos-and-donts-in-2014/ • Herding, W. (2012, September 20). Mode: 3 steps for target audience engagement. Retrieved May 5, 2014, from On:Subject: http://www.onsubject.eu/blog/model-three-steps-for-target-audience-engagement/ • Levy, D. (2013). How many small business pages does Facebook have. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from allfacebook.com: http://allfacebook.com/25m-small-business-pages_b126973 • Marketing, R. S. (2011, September 21). Facebook generates business for companies that use it. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from Red Spot Marketing: http://redspotmarketing.com/how-many-businesses-are-using-facebook/