Email marketing is by no means dead; in fact it’s still one of the primary ways to drive repeat sales for your business. It’s the ultimate marketing tool, and if used correctly it can be your secret weapon to ensure your brand is always top of mind. Quite a few companies make common mistakes that can tarnish how the consumer views their brand. We’ve summed up the five most frequent mistakes, so you can avoid them when creating a newsletter.

Each business offers a primary product or service upon which the business needs to focus. Better Business Practice offers a comprehensive strategic and financial service support to empower business owners to concentrate on their main source of revenue. No business is perfect, but can be improved incrementally. To compete and remain feasible it is essential to aspire to better the business that you practise. Practising better business is also not only about PROFIT, for a business to be truly successful it is important to consider other business objectives.

Blogging can be a cheap and simple way of marketing your company. The term "blog" is a shortened version of the phrase "web log". In a nutshell, it's an online journal of sorts where a blogger (the writer) regularly posts their thoughts, opinions, ideas and so on. Once published, it's usually open for other readers to share their opinions. A blog, if used properly, can be used to the advantage of a small business owner. It can even be your web presence if you don't already have a website.

Having redone our entire website and assisted some of our members in doing the same, it has come to mind that so many businesses just have no idea what it takes to develop a functional marketing website. We seem to focus so much on design and looks that we fail to even begin to develop the strategy that the site will be judged for in the future. Here are some questions to ask about your site to do a snap assessment on what you currently have.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. This is most probably the most irrelevant quote of our modern day culture. In times where people are stimulated by so many external factors and with digital innovations molding us into a quick fix generation, you are lucky to even get a first impression. The following five points about how to improve your website may seem very obvious to most readers but the harsh truth is that the majority of people take them for granted and make do with what they have.

So you've registered a domain, got your website up and running and believe you've established your business online. Like many businesses you might think your online marketing work is finished, but there are a few more steps needed to make sure that people actually find your site and interact with you online. This is a journey not a destination. Noto Modungwa, former Commercial Manager for eCommerce and Web Strategy at MWEB Business says there are a number of different tools available to do this but business owners are often unsure where to begin.

In today’s fast-paced online community, it is hard to keep up with all the social media activity filling up our feeds. Indeed, in this digital age, online is where it’s at – and while many of us use social media to keep in touch with our personal social networks, it is becoming more and more important to keep up with the times and use those same networks to leverage our businesses. This article outlines five social media hacks that will enable you to save time, money and gain wider exposure, more followers and improve engagement for your business.

Time is our most limited resource – for this reason we need to use the leverage offered by technology to recruit clients while we service other priorities. Technology makes it possible to duplicate and automate our own actions. Online or e-marketing need not be expensive when your start or run a business. Use this how-to guide to help you use technology to market to your clients.

The strike or hit rate is the ratio between the number of enquiries or prospects against those who eventually buy. This ratio differs widely depending on business type, with over-the-counter walk-in businesses getting high strike rates vs. business to business (B2B) suppliers of capital equipment, which may be around 25%. Whatever type of business you are in, a lot of sales effort goes unrewarded. Improving the strike rate means more sales from the same number of prospects.

Your website can be an important marketing tool for your business. It could be the first contact a potential client has with your company, so it's absolutely crucial that it's well designed and user-friendly. If your knowledge of the online environment is limited, here are some of the key questions you need to ask about your site.

Many guesthouses and B&Bs around the country enjoyed the boom in business that the Soccer World Cup brought about, but it has been a challenge for these small businesses to keep the momentum going since the World Cup ended. Many of the most successful South African lodges used the Internet to catch the lion’s share of bookings. The Internet provides many opportunities for guest house and B&B owners to market their businesses, especially when budgets are tight and traditional advertising is sometimes not an option.

You’ve just started up a new business; you’re sure you have a killer idea and can’t wait to see your success reflected in your bank account. However, your marketing budget is minimal, and your only interested customers are your mother, your next door neighbour and your friend. How are you going to get your name out there? Online Marketing has a number of innovative ways in which to increase your brand awareness and increase the sales of your product.

A social media presence – via social media marketing – is a must-have when it comes to marketing your business. You may have heard this phrase being bandied about, but aren't quite sure what it means or how it can be of use to your business. Let's demystify the online world of social media and how you can leverage it to reach a wider consumer base.

With Web2.0 as an easy to use platform, the prolific development of online business and social media has resulted in so many business networking opportunities. With so many business networks, local, national, and global, it's hard to choose. Some are only virtual; some include face to face meetings. Some are free, some requiring a small payment and others a larger payment. It’s mind boggling! But, really, is your “net” working?

The Internet has evolved to become more than just a tool for surfing and email – it's now essential for the day-to-day running and growth of any business. Besides enabling business owners to communicate with staff, clients and suppliers faster than ever before, small businesses are using the World Wide Web to improve productivity, efficiency and, ultimately, profitability. MWEB aims to guide SME and small-office-home-office (SOHO) business owners through the online world with this guide to some of its features and how they can be used to achieve professional success.

More and more however, businesses are using social media as a marketing/brand building tool and as another communications platform for engaging with their client or potential client base. The ever increasing adoption of social media by business begs the question: What if any legal risks are attached to social media adoption by business? Considering the multitude of audio, text and images shared by businesses, the most significant legal risk must be the ensuing blurring of intellectual property rights over the content published on such social media sites.

The concept of viral marketing has been debated and applied since the 1990s. The dawn of social media propelled it forward as another element in die marketing mix. Extracting real business value from social media is the challenge faced by all marketers who would like to embrace this avenue to market. How can we apply the principles of viral marketing in our own businesses?

The internet has shrunk the world to one tiny, global village. It has made it possible to connect with people in other countries and on other continents. But when it comes to choosing a digital agency to harness the internet for your business, it still is a good idea to think locally instead of globally. Enlisting the services of a local digital agency, one that’s in your city or country will benefit your business and online strategy in these four ways.

The old saying “First impressions last” may be a cliché, but as with most clichés it really does ring true. In the digital age, first impressions are more important than ever as you literally have one chance - a few seconds - to impress and garner interest from whoever has just clicked on your homepage. In this article, Jeremy Wilkinson, Marketing Manager at Webafrica, highlights 10 elements on your homepage that collectively can make a positive first impression and encourage someone to stay on your website – with a view to converting a visitor into a customer.