On 26 May 2012 the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) imposes an EU directive law stating that websites must provide ”clear and comprehensive” information about the use of cookies on your website. We have provided information that you must know and measures you can take to comply with the law.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a very simple text file that gets downloaded onto your PC when you visit a website. They generally contain two bits of information:

• a website name
• a unique user ID

Once the cookie is on your computer (or your website visitor’s in your case), the website “knows” that you have been there before and can then use that knowledge to tailor the experience that you have. The vast majority of commercial websites be they major online publishers, banks or ecommerce sites will use them.

What are they used for?

Cookies are used for many different functions including auto-filling forms, counting visitors, storing shopping basket items, personalising content, targeting advertising, recording user preferences and for authentication and security.

How does your website use cookies?

Thankfully we have built the bespoke website system for our customers so that it does NOT use cookies for the website to function other than those that have a visitor login facility that allows them to see private information. You do not need to get user permission for enabling cookies that are essential for the operation of your website, such as remembering your visitor details as logged-in users. This is purely in place to make your users’ experience easier.

However, Google Analytics does use cookies and you must inform the user that these exist and how they are used.

What are Google Cookies?

These cookies are used to track your website visitors’ behaviour but in a minimally intrusive way. For example, the default cookies used by Google Analytics are available only to you as the owner of the website the user is browsing and don’t reveal personally identifiable information. Therefore you are safe in the use of them. All the same it is required by law to state how your website uses cookies if at all.

What are Google Analytics and Google +1?

Google Analytics is a tool that can be used by website owners, managers and internet marketers to better understand how people are using a website. It is also used by Google to better understand the performance of its own websites.

How does Google use cookies for Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is Google’s free web analytics tool that helps website owners understand how their visitors engage with their website. Google Analytics collects information anonymously, and much like examining footprints in sand, it reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. Analytics uses its own set of cookies to track visitor interactions. These cookies are used to store information, such as what time the current visit occurred, whether the visitor has been to the website before, and which website referred the visitor to the web page. Google Analytics users can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so they can improve their website and how people find it. A different set of cookies is used for each website, and visitors are not tracked across multiple websites. Google Analytics users are obliged to notify users of their use of analytics software. To disable this type of cookie, some browsers will indicate when a cookie is being sent and allow you to decline cookies on a case-by-case basis. In addition to declining cookies, you can also install the Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on in your browser, which prevents Google Analytics from collecting information about your website visits.

Google +1

The Google +1 button is a social sharing tool that website owners install on their pages to make it easier for people to share their content on the Google+ social network.

If a browser visits a website that is using Google’s +1 button, a Google cookie is set (whether or not the Google+ button is clicked). This, says Google, is the “Google Preferences cookie”, set even if a user is not signed in to a Google account. Its conventional use is to remember preferences associated with Google services, such as your language and what level of Safe Search you might be using.

Google say this cookie is also now being used to record when and where the +1 button is loaded in order “to maintain and debug its systems“. This cookie expires after about two weeks.

Google Analytics
The Google Analytics cookie will store a unique identifier – so the website can recognise you if you visit again – as well as information about the pages the browser visits; when the browser is seen on the website; how long the browser was seen on the website; the IP address (which can allow the Google Analytics to infer the browser’s geographical location), and which website the browser was looking at before arriving at the current website (the referring url/website).

By default, this information is shown to website publishers through the Google Analytics tools and is not shared with anyone else. It is a first-party cookie.

The website owner can, however, also opt to share analytics data with Google. This information helps Google learn more about the advertising market and, in return, the websites that share their data get access to tools that improve the effectiveness of any advertising or paid search terms they buy from Google.

Website owners can also add their anonymised analytics data to a Google-owned pool of information on sites in similar industries. If you have elected to do this, Google will send them a benchmarking report.

No, says Google. But, if you click a +1 button this would, of course, be linked back to your Google+ ID. In this case Google+ will take the ID of your Google profile (obtained from the cookie that stores your Google account ID), the URL you +1, your IP address, and “other browser-related information”.

Depending on your personalisation settings, Google+ may use this to show other people in your circles that you have clicked that button.

What action must you take:

For now we advise adding information to your privacy policy page. We also advise adding a link in a more prominent position on every page of your website that links to the privacy policy and cookie usage page.

A privacy policy states how you will respect the privacy of your website users. It says what information you will gather, how you will use it and how you will keep it secure. To modify the sample below for your business, download our sample privacy policy below.

Download Acrobat PDF version HERE

Download Word version HERE

If you would like anymore information or help with your website page content then why not give our friendly team a call. You can get in touch with us here.

• Establishing your reputation. The quality of translation can do a lot to establish a reputation while you build your brand.
• Consistent message. When you set out to build your company internationally it is important that your core values shine through every form of communication. If your words are jumbled or ideas are rendered unintelligible through bad translation, then this will not be accomplished.
• Create a hunger: Branding is about creating a need and a thirst in the market for your products and/or services. You need to focus on making a really strong first impression to stop the risk of consumers turning to competitors.
•  Optimum brand exposure. Consumers are unlikely to pass along your brand (either physically or through word of mouth) if the packaging or marketing materials don’t demonstrate an immediate understanding of the language or local culture.
• Trust. A lot of buying a product or service comes down to trust, which is hard to do if the business has badly translated elements to it.
• Tagline recognition: What might be clever and considered great marketing in one country might be offensive or just plain confusing in another. For this reason, a translator who is attentive and familiar with the culture in hand is imperative.

Establishing your business in a foreign market is largely based around building clarity and consistency of your message, and neither of these elements can be maintained with faulty translations. The last thing you should have to worry about with the excitement of expanding into new markets is that customers will be lost or confused by your branding abroad. Your wording can say more about your business and your brand then you think.

For more information on building your company internationally, contact our friendly team here.

Here at ICE Innovation, our speciality is brand design and web design, meaning we leave the accounting and all the other fields of work that takes us away from being creative to the experts.

If we get a faulty wire we call an electrician. If we get a leak we call a plumber. If we needed a heart surgeon we would go to a qualified specialist! Our point? Unless you’re a web design specialist, the task is probably best left to the professionals.

Before the Web 2.0 movement of more than a decade ago, a website was simply text and photos. A brochure to showcase your business. Now though, visitors expect more, much faster and so do the search engines, making hiring a professional website company a necessity!

Today’s websites aren’t just bland presentations of text. Instead, they are about engaging, customer experiences. A competent website gives your visitors opportunities to create and access accounts or order merchandise. They expect services, to be able to make inquiries, chat and view blogs. It is also your duty to help them not only with their initial enquiry, but to also up-sell them anything else you can do to help them that will make a genuine difference to their life or business.

A content management system is required for many of these Web 2.0 features, but attempting to integrate this technology when it’s not your specialty can be a daunting task that will likely result in a less-than-professional appearance for your website. WordPress for example is a platform that anyone can start using for free. However, it looks free! If you try to design and build it yourself in WordPress you could be in danger of looking cheap at best. At worst, people will think that what you deliver is cheap too and go surfing elsewhere. You will never separate yourself from your competition if you don’t invest properly in working with experts who can use these free platforms to create something that looks bespoke, well designed and above all, positions you as the expert in your field. You can then charge more, work less hours and build a fantastic reputation you can be proud of. Surely that’s worth investing in.

Certainly, there are no rules to say that you can’t coordinate your own web design. In fact, there are plenty of resources other than WordPress to assist those who wish to tackle the task on their own. But, for those of you who prefer a bit of guidance and want your web page to be the best it can be, get in touch with our friendly team at ICE Innovation!

For more information or advice on your brand or web design, creative ideas and building your brand, contact your friendly team on 0113 322 1490 or click here to send us an email >

Our answer is this… Website maintenance is an on-going task and requires constantly updating to keep your content fresh and your prospects coming back to see what is new.

Here are some key signs that your website is in need of a spring clean!

• Your site no longer appears in search engine results such as Google or Bing.
• Visitors regularly contact you with queries that could have been answered on your site.
• Your website takes a while to load and is generally slow.
• Graphics are simple, or cartoon like using clip art.
• Images and text are broken, won’t load, or are out of place.
• Text on your site has been created with images, rather than HTML.

Modern websites should also include interactive features such as:

• Pay buttons
• Shopping cart
• Auto-responders
• Forms
• Estimation tools
• Downloadable PDF’s

Your website must act as an experience for your users and call people to action. It can often be the first and only impression that consumers will have with your brand. It is a reflection upon you and your business; therefore, it should display the very best of you.

For website design, advice or information on what we can do to help you with your website redesign, call 0113 322 1490 or contact us here.

By defining your brand strategy, you are utilising your marketing, advertising and social media to help reinforce your brand. Here at ICE Innovation we live and breathe everything related to brand design and so have decided to bring together our best tips that could develop your branding strategies even further.

Here are our top five tips on what your branding strategies could and should involve:

1. Strive to be unique!  Customers are tired of hearing about great quality and service. Think of something different. Be unique in ways that matter to your customers! What do you do differently to everyone else?
2. Interact with customers instead of pushing sales on them. New technologies and social media have enabled a two way communication function between business and customer and now is the time to jump on board and take advantage of this. If you see something they might like, send them a link to it. It will show you have thought about them.
3. Remain consistent with your identity. Customers can grow to love a brand which is why it is important that your logo and your brand colours are easily identifiable and consistent. Beware of sending emails or other communication that does not sit with your brand identity. If your core values are quality relationships, integrity and creativity like ICE Innovation, measure every communication you send out by these core values. If what you are about to send doesn’t fit with those, amend it!
4. Find ways to remain important to your customers. It is far easier to look after existing customers than constantly having to find new ones.  What could you do today to make a genuine difference to them?
5. Make sure your website is relevant and up to date! Searching for a product or a service through Google and other search engines is now the most popular way to research. If consumers do happen to end up on your page you want them to stay!! What can you do to make sure you are engaging with your audience enough to make them hungry for the next step?

Before you begin planning your brand strategy, take some time to analyse the barriers and the market conditions that could challenge your brand from achieving its success. Remember that branding isn’t a race and your branding strategies will take time to build and refresh, so take some time to adapt these tips the best way you can for your business.

For more information or tips on brand strategy, branding or other marketing ideas check out http://www.iceinnovation.co.uk/brand-communications-strategy

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 Branding your products or services and then effectively communicating them to your target market is essential for creating a successful campaign for your product or service.

Creating and building a brand isn’t just about great creativity that looks good. It also requires a highly focused communications strategy that delivers a consistent message to your potential clients and creates a hunger for what you deliver.

Brand communication strategies are essentially about linking you’re branding with your sales strategy. It should bridge the gap between your business strategy and marketing strategy.  Every business, regardless of size, should have a clearly defined brand communication strategy with specific processes and actions to lead your prospects through each stage of the process.

The purpose of a communications strategy is to provide you with the key steps for optimum brand exposure in order to increase sales and it should be designed around the key benefits that will appeal to your ideal clients and prospects.

ICE Innovation have many years of sales and business development experience and can offer to inject our energy, passion and creativity into all areas of consistent communication with your prospects and customers.

Get in touch with our friendly team on 0113 322 1490 or for more information visit us online at http://www.iceinnovation.co.uk/brand-communications-strategy

Here at ICE Innovation, we’re not just web design professionals based in Leeds, we are also consumers. We too troll the internet looking for answers about different products and services. And just like you, when we reach a certain site that could be potentially full of the information we need, we navigate away from the site. Why? We simply opt to not scroll through the clutter to get the information we need.

Websites that choose to use an overpowering design or overcrowd with content make it difficult for consumers to absorb content. Here is how simple web design can improve the user experience:

• A site with simple design and code loads more quickly.
• Simple code is easier to de-bug, this improves the speed of downtime.
• Simple web designs utilize server space and bandwidth. This equating to a more economical operating cost – which comes in especially useful if you have lots of visitors!
• The less time visitors waste on having to filter through the clutter on your page, the more time you have to win them over.
• At the end of the day, people will get frustrated with an over cluttered site. If someone does end up on your site don’t scare them away with heavy content and over powering designs!

For more information contact our team at ICE Innovation here.

Those keywords derive from your target audience. Here are a few methods that we use here at ICE Innovation to get into the heads of our consumers in Leeds:

1. Know who you target market is. If you understand your audience and their needs you will have a much more key understanding of the search terms that they are likely to use.
2. Don’t use jargon. Remember, most consumers aren’t using the terms as professionals use them. They are searching for the words they feel will get them the quickest results.
3. Look to forums and other online pages that consumers comment on that are associated with your industry and take a note of the language that they are using.
4. Study competitor’s language. That’s not to say copy it, but take a note of the words that they are using frequently.
5. If you have a unique selling point over other businesses that are similar in your industry then use it your advantage when it comes to searching for different terms.
6. Stay on top of changing trends and keep your keywords up to date and relevant.
7. If you are still unsure of the most appropriate keywords then conduct some surveys within your target market and get some more information on the most popular search terms within your market.

By tuning into what your audience wants you communicate better with consumers. SEO is after all, little more than a method for filling consumer’s most nagging needs.

For more information on keyword listing or SEO contact us here at ICE Innovation, ring 0113 322 1490 or contact us here.

In the past, brands had to rely on recognisable print magazine and newspaper titles to be able to promote themselves. Although they might choose to relate to branding in an abstract or general sense, the brand cannot choose the material that surrounds and supports their ads.

Recently, brands have been blurring the line that separates brand marketing from brand journalism. They are publishing their very own branditorials: consumer-centred magazine that push feature stories and news – that all relate to their brand.

If a brand decides to publish a branditorial, it positions itself as a ‘go-to’ source of news in a niche market. This can help build on trust and reputation, which is essentially a brands purpose. An example of which is Zappos. Zappos has developed an app that not only offers a catalogue from which to order but editorial content that relates to similar products.

Branditorials keep current clients interested and attracts new customers with a unique experience. If you wish to find out more on how a branditorial could contribute to your branding efforts contact us today. Call 0113 322 1490 or click here.

Mobile advertising isn’t a new concept; it has been around for nearly half a decade. Yet, only due to the recent technological advancements and the vast increase in smart phones has it been able to thrive.

Smart phones are increasingly taking over as the preferred way to not only surf the web but to read books, download music and shop. Businesses are slowly beginning to recognise the opportunity that mobile advertising can present to them.

Advertisers and developers are spending more and more time on mobile advertising and with the recent boom in the popularity of mobile apps the potential of this medium is like nothing seen before.

With more users turning to their smart phones instead of their desktop computer isn’t it time your company caught up?

For more information on mobile advertising get in touch with us, click here.