Interview with Tim Hughes of One Stop Financial Services About Web Adept Services

Interview with Tim Hughes of One Stop Financial Services

When did you first start using Web Adept?
About 4 years ago…..met Angus at BNI.
What your main concern or problem with your website/online marketing before you used Web Adept?
We were under a package. Needed something more personal that was bringing results. It was a template site – you just choose colours and content and put it up. We wanted something bespoke.
Can you tell me how you decided which web company to use?
Angus seemed a nice chap. He seemed to know what he was talking about. I was very confident in him. He seemed to be running a tight ship. I spoke to others that were using him. The quote that came back seemed to fit the bill.
What did you find most difficult/frustrating about internet marketing?
We didn’t know anything about it. Our knowledge and experience was very limited. Then Angus explained the products and services he offered…. it was straightforward, Joe Bloggs talk, laymans terms.

What did you find easiest about internet marketing?
It was done for us. I’ve got more of an understanding of what needs to be done. I was always under the impression that if you have a snazzy website it would bring you results. It’s nothing to do with that. As Angus says, there’s no point in having a glossy brochure and keeping it under the desk where no one can see it. He highlighted to us the importance of it and what programs would fit our needs and what we wanted to achieve out of it. I didn’t know any of this. I am not an IT person, I’m a bit green to this. I need my hand held.
If you were to look for more information about search marketing (what we do), what keywords would you type into a search engine / how would you describe it?
search engine optimisation / increase sales through the internet
When you met Angus was it timely that you met him, were you looking for someone?
It was a bit of a joint thing. Our website needed to be done and I needed to know about this SEO thing. It was a one stop shop really.
Please describe to me what could be improved in the way you buy search engine optimisation services from Web Adept.
Up until 8 months ago it wasn’t very transparent what he was charging and why he was charging for it. He introduced Service level Agreements . Gives us confidence and security and he delivers what he needs to deliver. Basically does what he says on the tin. Big turning point. His professionalism went upwards.

Would you have been up for a Service Level Agreement when you first signed up?
Yes, would have preferred it. It was a bit wishy washy. I like to be transparent etc. There was education from the start. At the beginning, I wanted my site to look better with more bells and whistles, but Angus educated me and told me it wasn’t just about how it looked.
How did Angus Educate you?
Through BNI, informal chat. As he was doing pitches and marketing, all this was going into me like a sponge. He knows his stuff.

Have you been on any Web Adept Training Courses?
Only using Social Websites as a form of marketing.
How did you find it?
Excellent.
Did you do anything as a result of the workshop?
He taught me how to do Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, I was using Facebook anyway, implementing what I’ve learnt to increase traffic to the business.
Do you find it easy to measure what your search engine marketing is doing for your business?
They do quarterly reviews. They do send me every month, statistical information. But to be honest, I don’t have a lot of time to look at them. Every quarter I collate them up and we go through them and say how we are doing. If there are any changes that need to be done, he’ll do it.
Do you feel in safe hands now?
Yes
Are you interested in taking on some of these tasks in internet marketing? Is it a personal interest to you or a bit of a chore doing Twitter and LinkedIn etc?
The social website stuff is more of a hobby. I’ll do it because I’m interested in it. It intrigues me how people market, how people advertise and how people use these things as a tool. That Ii have a personal interest in, but all the other stuff with SEO marketing and tag words and hit rates and how long people have been on pages, doesn’t interest me at all. At All. It bores me to death. Need my hand held a lot more than other people.
It sounds as if you’re quite interested in the human side of marketing – are you?
I get quite interested in the psychology side of things and how people interact with the personal stuff, but with regards to looking at sets of figures of how long people have been on my site, what pages they have looked at, I say to Angus, have a look at this, cipher out what needs to be done. At the end of the day I am an IFA, not an SEO guru. Why should I try and do it myself when I get an expert in?
If you could sum up the impact Web Adept services have on your business, what would you say?
Traffic to the business. Amount of enquiries we have off it. 6 messages one month…12 the next month. Angus guides me using the statistics. I can identify the main core areas I want to improve but leave it to Angus to make that happen.
What score would you give yourself from 1-10 on the following areas.
(1 – very little to 10 – a great deal)
Understanding websites 3 8
Understanding SEO 1 7
Interested in new internet technologies 3 6
Willing to learn about and use social media tools
All a bit boring this IT stuff….JF, for you the social media tools are in a very different box aren’t they?
Completely. Personally for me, I’ve had phenomenal results on Facebook, not on the corporate level. Flying the flag that I’m still an IFA to everyone I know. That’s just being there. It’s nothing to do with marketing that’s just exposure.
Please rank these marketing tools for your business in the following way: 4 (very important, 3 important), 2 (not important), 1 (irrelevant/don’t know)
Website 4 – where I need to be placed within the market
Blog 4 – Angus is on at me. We’ve got one and we only use it a lot because Angus goes on about it a lot. Angus has educated me to how important that is.
e-newsletter 4
Facebook 4
Twitter not used yet. Would be important
Advertising – local paper 2 (very very poor) We were advertising in yellow pages before, but consolidated this to spend more on internet
Advertising – specialist press 2
If you were advising someone else about engaging internet marketing services what would you say are the 3 most important things?
Cost / Knowledge / Service

By Angus Findlay