This is for suppliers, practitioners, key staff from SMEs not able to fully participate as eChampions.

Benefits

• Invite to monthly events with topical speakers
• Online business profile (and view other business profiles)
• Collaboration and networking opportunities

Your contribution

• Maintain your online profile
• Free to attend the events if you wish.
• Encouraged to contribute to forums, but you are completely free to be a passive member

eChampions has been created to help company owners, managers and other key staff at East Midlands SMEs. It’s a programme of face-to-face events, an online community and opportunities to learn, network, gain support and share knowledge with like-minded business owners and eBusiness specialists.

"giving you the tools and skills to grow your business online."

eChampions has been created to help company owners, managers and other key staff at East Midlands SMEs. It’s a programme of face-to-face events, an online community and opportunities to learn, network, gain support and share knowledge with like-minded business owners and eBusiness specialists.

eChampions is part-funded by European Social Fund and is a partnership between AxisCentre Castle College, New College Nottingham, Loughborough College, South Leicestershire College, EMFEC, De Montfort University and Hibernia College, Dublin. Download our PDF brochure.

What's it for?

eBusiness Champions has been created to help company owners, managers and other key staff to exploit the true commercial potential of the web. It’s about you understanding the underlying trends, identifying new markets through search and via social media. It’s about making the right technological and commercial eBusiness decisions and learning from other businesses already successfully turning the web into a commercial reality. Register now.

How does it work?

This programme offers you live learning and networking events, online interaction and expert support allowing you to explore the issues that your business faces in exploiting the true commercial potential of the web in terms of strategy, tactics and practicalities. Register now.

What does membership Involve?

There are two types of membership. You can be a 100% "eBusiness Champion" with individual support and an action plan to follow, or you could simply be a "community member" and use the networking opportunities? For further details on what these memberships entail, see our Community Membership and eChampions Membership pages.

What's the process involved?

PREPARE:

• Download materials and watch video.
• Think about the subject and your business.
• List your questions and  do preparation.

THE EVENT:

• Attend event and participate.
• Watch live online and participate.
• View edited highlights.

THE CONVERSATION:

• Take part in forum discussion
• Explore subject in more depth.
• Ask questions, learn from peers.

ACT:

• Create action plan.
• Complete your ePlan.
• Take action in your business.

What's the cost and criteria?

There is no cost for participating businesses provided they are based in the East Midlands and employ between 1 and 250 staff. We are seeking 200 businesses across the East Midlands, who are genuinely interested in exploiting the commercial potential of the web to grow online, and in creating new markets in the UK and internationally. Register now.

Who is involved?

There is no cost for participating businesses provided they are based in the East Midlands and employ between 1 and 250 staff. We are seeking 200 businesses across the East Midlands, who are genuinely interested in exploiting the commercial potential of the web to grow online, and in creating new markets in the UK and internationally. Register now.

 

Sharing Google analytics

Initially this may sound scary to some, but actually this is a rare and excellent opportunity for benchmarking your business!

 You might look at your Google analytics, but do you really look at the data, and in isolation, does it actually mean much to you? You may have a bounce rate of 36% but is that good/bad/ok?
Now imagine being able to compare your stats to other businesses, similar to yours in the East Midlands. These are businesses facing the same challenges as you, and you will have the option to actually communicate with them and learn from them. 

 

 

What data will be shared

We will not be sharing any data that is sensitive or financial! We are sharing the following metrics from Google Analytics

-          Number of visitors

-          New visitors

-          Bounce rate (overall from Dashboard)

-          Average time on site

-          Average number of page views

-          % traffic sources (how many came from search, from PPC, direct etc)

 

 

How will the data be shared

We ask that you share your Google Analytics account with us. This is done via your own account where you just give us “view rights”.
This allows us to run an automatic report once a month which will be emailed to you. This way it is only the eChampions that will get the data, not anyone else in the community. "Community members" will not share Analytics and will not have access to this data!

We can view your Google Analytics data, but of course we cannot change anything and only a few of our staff that will ever have access to it. Your data will never be view by anyone else; it won’t be visible to search engines or on the web site.

  

What if my stats are embarrassingly low?

They won’t be! We have sites in a very wide range with anything from a 2 visitors a day to 130.000 visitors a month.
Another thing to always remember is that a high number of visitors doesn’t necessarily mean a good site or a successful/profitable business. The traffic has to be relevant and convert into £!
To set a good example, we will also be sharing our own stats with you, from both the eChampions website and the Axis Centre web site.

  

Is this a threat to my business?

Will this be a threat if one of my competitors are taking part in eChampions? We don’t think so. We think the programme is all about collaborating, not competing. If you are lucky to find another company on the programme doing what you do, it should actually be a fantastic opportunity for you to work together and exchange knowledge?
Bigger doesn’t always mean better! And remember, higher stats don’t always mean a better business. You can’t see out of the stats how many online orders are completed or what their profit margin is etc.  

 

What if I really don’t want to share my stats?

That is absolutely fine! We don’t put pressure on anyone to participate in the programme at the full eBusiness Champions level. You are very welcome to participate in the programme as a “Community member” and not share your stats. Find out more about the community member level here. 
If you are still not sure please just contact us.

 

 

Excellent opportunity to come with us to Dublin on the 15th of April to learn from successful Irish eBusinesses.

 

 Dublin saw a huge economic increase in a short space of time and  eCommerce in Irish firms accounts for 26% of turnover compared to just 15% in the UK.

We would like to invite a small group of eBusiness Champions to travel to Dublin with us on Thursday 15^th April for our first study visit to Ireland. We're able to offer this opportunity to you because of the funding provided to our project by the European Social Fund. This is only available to full level eBusiness Champions.

 

With help from Hibernia College (our transnational partner) and Enterprise Ireland, we're arranging a great day to exchange knowledge and learn from successful eBusinesses in Dublin. 

 

 The aim and outline agenda

The aim of the day is to learn from relevant online businesses and networks in Ireland, share knowledge, benchmark and identify actions for your business.

 

Morning

Early departure (approx 5.30am from Nottingham/Leicester) to Birmingham airport for 7.55am flight

 Arrive Enterprise Ireland for 10am start 

 Introduction about the development of eBusiness in Ireland

 Case studies of successful Irish eBusinesses

 

Lunch

 

Afternoon

Secure payment technologies for your website

 eBusiness case studies, including Hibernia College - the leading provider of online learning in Ireland

Chance for participants to engage with the speakers, ask all your questions and build some new exciting links.

 Evening flight at 8pm, returning to Nottingham/Leicester approx 10pm

 

Cost

We will pay for your flights, transport to and from airports and provide lunch in Dublin.

 Please note, if you are selected to go we will ask for a 100% refundable deposit of £100 for the flights. If you are decide not to travel we will keep your deposit to pay for the costs of transferring your ticket to another delegate.

 

 Who can go and how to apply?

If you are an eBusiness Champion and would like to go please email us to log your interest. Please tell us why you would like to go and what you would hope to get from the visit on 15th April. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by Monday 15th March latest - and ensure your passport and European Health Insurance Card will be valid for the trip!

 

Ultimately we will select a small group of eChampions (up to 10 people) so the case studies will be from relevant businesses to your own, to maximise the value for you. We hope to be to inform those going by 18th March so we can then book flights and confirm other arrangements. 

Note: we intend to arrange further visits to Dublin but can't guarantee when, or how many eChampions we'll be able to take. 

 

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

 

 

Location: DMU, Queens Building, Leicester
Date: Tuesday 2nd March, 2010

---

Thanks to everyone who attended this event about optimising your website for universal search. It was a relatively small turnout in Leicester, partly due to people attending Nottingham, but we had good feedback and I think everyone felt that had some good things they could go away and do.

It was great to see a few of new people as well and we hope to see you again at the next event in

Some of the highlights…

Susan initially makes two overall points to keep in mind. There has been a big change on Google with the new Caffeine version coming out, but at the same time she kept emphasising that really “there isn’t anything new under the sun”, everything that was true in SEO before still applies! So still get your on-page stuff right, which of course starts with you doing the ground work and finding your best key phrases to optimise for. And also, still do your leg-work to get those all important quality in-bound links.

 

The advantage of being a small fish
Susan says in the new “search field” it is all about being smarter, quicker and more nimble, and of course that is exactly what smaller business are able to do. You can be very quick to reply and react to what happens online. You can quickly reply to a Twitter post, write a new entry for your blog, participate in a forum etc. Unlike a very big heavy corporate organisation where several meetings will be needed to agree on the correct response, by which time the conversation have moved on by several days.

 

Google Insights
For doing key word research Susan mentioned that while the “old” Google keyword research tool is good, it is also worth using “Google Insight” tool as it will show you the trends and changes in search phrases and this can help you spot new phrases that are on the rise.

 

Webmaster tools
Make sure to sign up for webmaster tools! If you are wishing to optimise for image searches, you should enable image search in the web masters tools. We were slightly discouraged by how few of the business present said they were already using web masters tools? If this is something you are unsure about please contact us!

 

Participate on YouTube
Susan encourages people to create a YouTube channel and upload video. Make sure to give it the right title and tags so it gets optimised. Also spend a bit of time deciding on the name of your channel. Is it better to call it “Joe Blogs” or “Wedding photography”?
Be active on the YouTube forums as Google will take this as a sign that you are a serious and active user.

 

Google Local Business Centre and local directories
Make sure to claim your company name on the local listings, or other unprofessional SEO companies could pinch it and use it for your competition. If you are optimising for local/geographic phrases this can be an excellent opportunity for you, your listing could be shown top of Google with a great map. Make sure to use your local phone number and appropriate local post code.
To support your local/geographical SEO make sure to include your company address and phone number on the footer of all your web pages.
Make sure to list your business on other local directories as well for some good inbound links.

PR
Susan suggests everyone spends some time on PR. Try to write some good press releases for the good big papers. You can also use Press Release Submission Services which will push your press releases your to different channels, there are some free ones but the better ones you will need to pay for.

 

The Internet Conference 14^th May in Nottingham
Susan mentioned that they are working on a new Internet Conference which will be held at the East Midlands Conference Centre on the 14^th of May, we look forward to finding out more about this and will of course add it to our event calendar with more details as we get them through.

Slides

Next event

Next Leicester event is on the 30^th March… but until then please engage on the forum…

 

Location: Cape Bar, Hockley, Nottingham
Date: Thursday 25th Feb, 2010

---

Thanks to everyone who attended the February event to hear Susan Hallam talk about optimising your website for universal search. We had a record number of people turn up and had lots of really good feedback, even if everyone felt they were going away with a long “to-do-list”.

It was great to see a good handful of new people as well, and glad to see that some of them have already registered on the web site as well now.

 

Some of the highlights…

Susan initially makes two overall points to keep in mind. There has been a big change on Google with the new Caffeine version coming out, but at the same time she kept emphasising that really “there isn’t anything new under the sun”, everything that was true in SEO before still applies! So still get your on-page stuff right, which of course starts with you doing the ground work and finding your best key phrases to optimise for. And also, still do your leg-work to get those all important quality in-bound links.

 

The advantage of being a small fish
Susan says in the new “search field” it is all about being smarter, quicker and more nimble, and of course that is exactly what smaller business are able to do. You can be very quick to reply and react to what happens online. You can quickly reply to a Twitter post, write a new entry for your blog, participate in a forum etc. Unlike a very big heavy corporate organisation where several meetings will be needed to agree on the correct response, by which time the conversation have moved on by several days.

 

Google Insights
For doing key word research Susan mentioned that while the “old” Google keyword research tool is good, it is also worth using “Google Insight” tool as it will show you the trends and changes in search phrases and this can help you spot new phrases that are on the rise.

 

Webmaster tools
Make sure to sign up for webmaster tools! If you are wishing to optimise for image searches, you should enable image search in the web masters tools. We were slightly discouraged by how few of the business present said they were already using web masters tools? If this is something you are unsure about please contact us!

 

Participate on YouTube
Susan encourages people to create a YouTube channel and upload video. Make sure to give it the right title and tags so it gets optimised. Also spend a bit of time deciding on the name of your channel. Is it better to call it “Joe Blogs” or “Wedding photography”?
Be active on the YouTube forums as Google will take this as a sign that you are a serious and active user.

 

Google Local Business Centre and local directories
Make sure to claim your company name on the local listings, or other unprofessional SEO companies could pinch it and use it for your competition. If you are optimising for local/geographic phrases this can be an excellent opportunity for you, your listing could be shown top of Google with a great map. Make sure to use your local phone number and appropriate local post code.
To support your local/geographical SEO make sure to include your company address and phone number on the footer of all your web pages.
Make sure to list your business on other local directories as well for some good inbound links.

PR
Susan suggests everyone spends some time on PR. Try to write some good press releases for the good big papers. You can also use Press Release Submission Services which will push your press releases your to different channels, there are some free ones but the better ones you will need to pay for.

 

The Internet Conference 14^th May in Nottingham
Susan mentioned that they are working on a new Internet Conference which will be held at the East Midlands Conference Centre on the 14^th of May, we look forward to finding out more about this and will of course add it to our event calendar with more details as we get them through.

Slides

Next event

Next Nottingham event is on the 25^th March… but until then please engage on the forum…

 

When you walk through the local shopping mall, what attracts you to one store over another? Is it strictly your needs at the moment, or is there more to it? Are you more likely to enter a store that's light, airy and inviting, or one that's kind of dark with narrow aisles and cluttered shelves? Eye appeal counts.

When designing a website, there are key user behaviours that should be taken into account. But in order to take them into account, it helps to know them. Below are 10 of the more interesting and less well-known user behaviours that regularly occur in user testing:

This annual show is a great place for any business wishing to keep up-to-date with what it new for the year ahead. 60 FREE seminars and 8 key note speakers over 2 days, covering everything from Digital marketing, CRM, Data analytics, eCommerce, Social media and online advertisement. These are our highlights...

The great thing about this show is that is puts the web site in context to the rest of your business. It is abut the web, but actually the web is just one part of your overall business strategy.

The very reassuring thing was that the show focused on areas that we are already covering on the eBusiness Champions programme and confirmed lots of the things we are currently speaking to all of you about!

It can be quite hard to find training courses specific about web accessibility but here is a list of courses on offer in the East Midlands...