boyd of ayrshire .com

I been think for a while now about what the geographical location should be for local companies when they set about some online marketing.

So I decided to have a look at used cars.

First I looked at the top down view, UK, Scotland, West Scotland, Ayrshire then Ayr.
Now where is the best place to find your target market?

I’m sure there’d be more competition for “Used cars for sale in Ayr” but there isn’t “Used cars for sale in Ayrshire” has more businesses targeting the wider area. Interesting, but on closer inspection alot of the national car sales websites like fish4car and autotrader appear for the Ayrshire search and not the Ayr search.

Within the top 20 position for any of these terms there is not a Ayr or Ayrshire based company. Arnold Clark are listed and are local but there part of a national chain and ranking due to the links heading in to the homepage. David Bryson is the only used car sales company that appears within the top 100 that is located in Ayrshire and as this blog was setup to provide Ayrshire business with a guide to marketing online I’ll help David Bryson out, Used Cars for Sale in Ayrshire, there you go.

A freebie, wow I feel better now.

Many people that know me will be curious as to the nature of this blog post and will think that David Bryson are one of my clients but there not. It’s half time in the Rangers V Florentina game and I’m bored and for some reason I couldn’t think of anything else to write about and I wanted to update my blog.

The second halves started…

I don’t read the Guardian much but the last time I did, which was never, it was going on about the big ice cube in Greenland melting away and that we’re all going to be drowned.

And now that I’ve went and stupidly moved about 50 yards from the sea, I could be already dead according to the Guardian, time do to something about it. 

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new bar/restaurant in Ayr that I’ve been going to since it opened. Arches just passed the train station towards Ayr Central shopping center is a little bit differant. For a start they have great coffee (in small cups, hint, hint), Staropramen on tap and a differant looking menu. The look of the bar is trendy west end style with a Spanish touch which is reflected on the Tapas menu, I’ve never had the Tapas but I did get the breakfast which was coffee and a bacon roll for less than £3, and it was cripsy and good.

But for those of us that spend our lives in front of a laptop and sometimes working from home Arches offer free WiFi when you buy a coffee or a beer. Last night I had a document to finish and Kim was wanting to go shopping, two in one, parked the car at the shopping center, Kim went off to spend and I went round to Arches to type. I also got talking to the barman Michael and the owner Graeme, nice guys.

It offers the ideal place for Ayrshire internet home workers to go and offers another option to sitting in the spare  bedroom or into front of the TV. Before Arches had opened I used to go to Beanscene, the coffee and the nachos are good but they charge for WiFi. I’ll need to convince the guys at Arches to include nachos to the menu, serve coffee in mugs and it’ll be the better than an office.

Try it out!

The BreakDown

On Saturday 4th August I had the unpleasent experiance of my car breaking down 20 miles from home on a motorway. As I sat in the broken down vehicle I didn’t looked stressed or nervous, why, because I’ve been paying for a rescue service that I got included in my latest car insurance deal from Churchill.

The super deal I got on rescue cover was provided by Greenflag and I recieved 10% off at the time of taking this rescue cover package which costs only £109 a year.

As I travel from Ayrshire to Glasgow everyday it was important for me to be covered. The last thing I want to happen is my car breaking down on the M74.

So, I phoned the “Breakdown in the UK” number provided to me and with my policy number in hand I wait on the automated messages to finish so I tell the nice person on the other end of the phone my problem and they’d have a tow truck sent out in a flash to rescue me.

Finally,

Greenflag “Hi, Have you broken down” echoed through the phone to my delight.

Me “Yes,Sir” I anwsered back. Great we’ll be on our way soon.

Then things started to turn a little pear shaped.

Greenflag “Sir, Can I have your postcode?” Postcode provided.

Greenflag “Sir, There’s no policy at that postcode” Eh!

Greenflag “Sir, What’s your vehicle registration?” Registration provided

Greenflag “Sir, There’s no policy for that vehicle” Eh!

Greenflag”Sir, What’s your full name, address and postcode?” Provided,

Ok now I’m panicking, it’s really raining as it does in Scotland and I don’t know the telephone number of any garages. That’s because I have piece of mind with my Greenflag rescue cover.

Greenflag “Sir, We have no details for your name, address, postcode or vehicle, did you get your cover from Churchill?” Yes, I did, why, wait, I have the policy number of the insurance and the rescue cover package. Provided,

Greenflag “Sir, We have no policy for that, Can I transfer you to Churchill they can sort this out for you?” Ok, After listening to about 10 minutes of automated messages about car insurance fraud I was then notified and mortified that,

Churchill “The chuchill offices are now closed please call back………” Now panick has set in.

A quick call to one of those 118 numbers and I was transfered to a local breakdown company, the phone the rung once, explained my problem, breakdown truck arrived prompty and £180 was withdrawn from my wallet to pay the nice man.

The Fraud

So now it’s Monday morning and time to call Churchill to find out why they’ve been withdrawning money from my bank account every month and not providing the service that I’m paying for. In most cases this would be a form of fraud, wouldn’t it?

Green Flag “What’s your postcode”

Green Flag “I’m sorry Sir but nothing is coming up” I’ve heard this before.

Has anyone else had similiar problems?

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Churchill, Greenflag

Here is a simple list of tips you should consider if marketing your website locally.

1. Get listed in local online directories.

Examples for Ayrshire: http://www.browseayrshire.com, http://www.ayr-web.co.uk
How to find more: Search Google for Region or City plus directory

2. Join your local Chamber of Commerce.

Most UK Chamber of Commerce websites have an online directory of members and there websites.
Example For Ayrshire: http://www.ayrshire-chamber.org/directorylisting.asp

3. Get your service or product listed in local online classified ads

Example for Ayrshire: http:/./glasgow.gumtree.com, http://ayr.iclads.com/

4. Include your domain name on your business cards, flyers, ad’s etc

5. Write good content for your website.

This will help to retain visitors to your website and help to convert to sales over time. Remember to include the region and city that you operate in.

6. Start a blog.

Wordpress.com, Blogger.com and many more offer free hosted blogging services, use this blog platform to communicate with previous customers, leave testimonials and also describe products and services in greater detail. These blogging platforms are always very search engine friendly and would help to promote your business with really doing not much more than talking about what you do.
Example for Ayrshire: http://ayrshirescotlandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/

7. Check out your local council.

Some local councils have directories of all the companies within the local area.
Example for Ayrshire: http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/Business/business_directory.asp

8. Good old Word of Mouth.

Tell everyone you know about what you do, get them to tell there friends and if they have a website, myspace or bebo account get them to link to your site or add you as a friend. If your friends do have myspace and bebo accounts get them to give you a free lesson on what it does.

9. Good old Shop Windows

If your along at your local shop and they have ad’s on the window then get your business listed in there, remember to include your website. People might see the ad and remember the domain name rather than the phone number.
Examples for Ayrshire: Most Spars, Tesco, Asda and Homebase

10. Get listed on Google Maps

Google maps in a great way to get listed at the top of google for your service or product. Simply set an account at google and follow the instructions to get listed. Google Local Business Centre http://tinyurl.com/3a8sh4

Blogged with Flock

Tags: SEO, Local, Google, Business, Marketing

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When I started this blog I wanted to use it as a platform to show the other side of Ayrshire, the nice bits. But since the blogs creation a month or so ago it’s rained non stop. I know some people like to blame anything for the bad weather but blaming a website would be a tad extreme.

This weekend we were determined to get out in the garden and have some fun.

BBQ it is!

Firstly the BBQ went well, food was great as always, no alcohol in site as we all had hangovers from the Saturday parties, Note to self: if a Lithuanian ever tells you that you don’t get a hang over from drinking straight vodka don’t believe him .

Everytime we BBQ we always build a nice big fire to sit around in the evening and cook potatos. The fire started of roaringly and then someone mentioned the cooking of the Ayrshire Tatties. At that very point the clouds closed over and the heaviest rain I’ve seen since returning from Thailand dropped from the sky above. We’re a determined bunch us cowboys and girls from the deep south of Ayrshire, the rain wasn’t going to put us off having a good time and some fire cooked spuds.

As we sat under the trees trying to avoid the rain we thought that no one would believe what we’re doing so a brave dash back to the house to fetch the camera for proof that we’re all off our heeds.

But it don’t work, back inside for some heat and a quick look over the pics and we notice that we can’t see the rain.

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