Warrington-based digital marketing agency Latitude, valued at £50m when it changed hands just over two years ago, was sold for less than £1.1m after it went into a pre-pack administration in January. A newly filed administrators’ report reveals that equity investors lost nearly £40m in the collapse of Latitude Group Ltd (LGL) and Barclays, its bankers, lost £4.62m. Latitude, a search engine optimisation specialist, was bought back out of administration by its previous owners Vitruvian Partners, a London-based private equity …

The announcement today of the departure of Jim Gill, the Chief Executive of Liverpool Vision, is one which raised a few eyebrows. Although unsurprising as he made no secret, privately or in public that retirement was looming. So what should the digital sector hope for in his successor?

Jim’s leadership of Liverpool Vision has been an undoubted success, delivering genuine results to the City Region, even through the dark and difficult days of the last 24 months. For the Digital sector …

I read with interest the news emanating about Latitude’s problems and its left me slightly confused. Their funders Barclays are believed to have lost several million pounds as a result of a pre-pack administration but the business says they are doing great, so why the call in from the bank?

Well done to digital marketing specialists Hit Search who have recently added one of the world’s top museums, the Victoria and Albert Museum to its list of clients. The London museum has enlisted the services of Liverpool based Hit Search to aid the online marketing campaign of its retail website, V&A Shop.

Trainee Social & Search Executive – Mando Group
Liverpool based Mando Group is a nationally renowned web design consultancy, with more than 700 web and online development or campaign projects to date. NorthWest Vision & Media will be partnering with them on the i.studio scheme and are currently taking applications for a Trainee Search & Social Media Executive. This is an ideal opportunity for individuals new to the web industry who want to build a career in …

Facebook was valued at up to £6billion by experts but, until yesterday, had failed to make a cent in profit. Now, after five years and racking up 300million users, it is finally making enough money to cover its costs. The company’s income is on track to grow by 70 per cent this year.

18 months ago, I would debate the value of social networking for some of our more serious corporate clients. Now, almost all of our clients have some social networking presence. The data available makes it a necessity to at least have a flickr, facebook and LinkedIn profiles, even if to just to protect brand image. 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media. 85% of social media users believe a company should go …

Read how Liverpool-based SEO company Quba New Media delivered a 12 month strategy and started pushing Sleepmasters up the ranks for many popular searches in Google resulting in a tenfold surge in site traffic.

CL5 Search Engine Marketing has recently completed a six month organic promotion contract with Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa. CL5 claims to have dominated local search results across highly competitive leisure sector keywords through a combination of online marketing techniques. The results include No. 1 positions for spa golf, formby spa, formby hall golf club southport, Top 5 pga golf academy, corporate golf north west, golf liverpool, luxury spa liverpool, health spa southport. Top 10 golf resort, luxury spa …

I have been to the site several times as a potential relocation for our business, but until 2007, I was more likely to hit tumbleweed than a potential client. It was always well kitted out but a soulless and sterile atmosphere, not a creative hub of energy and excitement. We moved to Castle Street.

On the 8th December 2003, The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) unveiled the branding for Liverpool Digital, at the Edge Lane site. The Vision in 2003. Liverpool …

What business club websites are the best to profile on? Who gets the most visitors, which is the best site, Google ranking and so on. Purely based on design then Downtown Liverpool in Business for me is the best. Second place, Liverpool Chambers of Commerce and a long way back is Professional Liverpool; the name becomes an oxymoron when you land on the website.

Liverpool’s business clubs play an important role in helping to promote our businesses. They act as a …

SME’s & Online Banner Advertising. If most of your customers are local then regional online banner advertising can be very cost effective. It’s one way for SME’s to get their messages out for pretty good value for money if it’s done right. There are some techniques that can be used to help you get more bang for your buck, it just takes a bit more thought and time…..

Website copywriting, some tips! The web is notorious for either creating a severe case of writers’ block or freeing-up people to write reams of garbage. What techniques are useful for writing web copy that works with the medium and engages with your users?

Many firms desperate to attract more business online are increasingly in danger of being sucked in by novice marketing agencies aggressively selling the virtues of SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques. Experienced marketing professionals with integrity will tell you that traditional SEO when used in isolation from e-pr or digital pr will not generate business, maintains Joel Jelen, managing director at Liverpool-based pr agency, Ubiquity.

The Obama campaign is one of the biggest online marketing success’s of our time. The Internet in 2008 played a huge part in getting Obama elected and changing how all political campaigns will be fought in the future. The whole campaign was executed perfectly and last week it picked up the Titanium Grand Prix advertising festival at Cannes Lions

The …

Where would you look to find out what’s going on in Liverpool’s Digital Sector? ACME and the Design Initiative represent the creative sector as a whole. ICDC law upon to itself and does little to float my boat. When you start have a proper look there’s not a public sector site that I think is well designed, current and helps showcase Liverpool’s digital sector.

…

Rising stars Ph Creative have launched the Eco Environments website, July 2009. Eco Environments is a renewable energy specialist in Liverpool and the UK, seen an innovator in the energy field. The design is fresh, great use of flash and HTML. It feels easy and efficient so a perfect fit to its client brand. Some cool use of icons.

Online PR – Search Engine Marketing. Since the majority of us don’t have Google’s bankroll for huge Pay Per Click camapigns, you are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your websites. Online PR could be part of your answer – sharing your company news and views directly over the Internet.

You can get decent online exposure starting from £60 using a news distributor such as www.prweb.com.

Online virals have been around for what seems an age. The big sports brands like Nike, Adidas have caught on big time to the value of online virals and do the best job in my eyes. Probably because they now spend the most money on production and promotion.

The first one I remember back in the day of great big Mpeg email attachments screaming through your 56K dial up wasn’t in a corporate, it’s the kick boxing floppy leg! It’s still …

How does Google determine which sites will rank above others in its natural search results? Unlike web directories that list sites on the basis of editorial review by a human, Google is software that uses a complex maths formula to make its ranking ‘decisions’.

No-one outside of Google can claim to know the whole formula, but outside of a whole range of quality factors that are pretty well published and …

Access to finance has been the big issue for SMEs in the recession, obtaining public sector investment can be a useful alternative.

I started CL5, a digital consultancy specialising in search engine marketing in April 2009. To launch and then grow the business I needed more capital than I could afford to invest personally. I had been kicking at the doors of all the major banks for a good six months asking the questions, with only a set of …

Social media is transforming brand communication; in this article Mark Jones discusses the impact of this emerging medium on consumer and advertiser behaviour.

Ph Creative
12 Rodney Street,
Liverpool,
L1 2TE
Tel: 0151 708 2280
Email: liverpool@ph-creative.com
www.ph-creative.com

New Mind
Suite 101-108
Queens Dock Business Centre, 67-83 Norfolk Street,
Liverpool, L1 0BG
Tel: 0151 287 7791
Email: info@newmind.co.uk
www.newmind.co.uk

Mando Group,
131 Mount Pleasant,
Liverpool,
L3 5TF
Tel: 0845 365 4040
Email: open@mandogroup.com
www.mandogroup.com

Hit Search Limited
Liverpool Innovation Park,
Liverpool Digital, Baird House,
Liverpool, L7 9NG
Tel: 0845 643 9289
Email: info@hitsearch.co.uk
www.hitsearchlimited.com

Glow New Media
712 Gostins Building,
32-36 Hanover Street,
Liverpool, L1 4LN
Tel: 0151 707 9770
Email: info@glow-internet.com
www.glow-internet.com

Creative Liverpool
The Old Bank of England Building,
31 Castle Street,
Liverpool, L2 4GL
Tel: 0151 236 5797
Email: agency@creativeliverpool.co.uk
www.creativeliverpool.co.uk

Cl5 Search Engine Marketing
The Old Bank of England Building,
31 Castle Street,
Liverpool, L2 4GL,
Tel: 0151 236 3322
Email: agency@cl5.co.uk
www.cl5.co.uk

Brainboxes Limited
Unit 3C, Wavertree Boulevard South, Wavertree Technology Park,
Liverpool, L7 9PF
Tel: 0151 220 2500
Email: marketing@brainboxes.com
www.brainboxes.com

Bizarre Creations
The Studio, Leeward Drive, Estuary Business Park,
Speke, Liverpool, L24 8DA
Tel: 0151 494 4140
Email: NextGenJobs@bizarrecreations.com
www.bizarrecreations.com