The Department for Business & Trade has just announced this year’s free and exclusive Digital Trade Programme for organisations in the Midlands to take their website to the world with confidence, competence and credibility.
If you sell your products and services overseas or are planning to, now more than ever, your website needs to be able to attract and appeal to an international audience. Expectations are growing rapidly as customers discover more convenience on all levels – be it product customisation, mobile-optimised search, quick checkout processes or hassle-free delivery.
The Department for Business & Trade said: “Our programme takes you on a website internationalisation journey, from getting started, to a fully localised and optimised international website.
“Midway through the programme we will host our annual Digital Trade Conference so you can meet likeminded businesses from around the region, hear from experts in e-commerce, digital marketplaces and platforms, cyber security and social media to name but a few.”
The programme covers the following questions:
- How well your existing website is performing on international search engines?
- How to attract visitors from outside the UK to your website?
- When and how to translate, localise and optimise your website for international search engines?
- How to source and commission external web providers such as designers, digital marketers, translators and copy writers to take forward your international web strategy?
- When and how to move your website to another platform and what to include in your brief?
- How to implement effective paid and organic SEO?
The Take Your Website to the World Masterclass Series consists of individual virtual one-hour sessions. Book your place on one or as many sessions as you would like by clicking here.
Wednesday 20th September, 10am to 11am – Session 1: Website Health Check in 8 Easy Steps
A very practical session which will show you how to use free tools to check your website’s current performance before embarking on your international website journey. Understand how to not only benchmark your performance but also that of your competitors to gain competitive advantage.
Tuesday 26th September, 10am to 11am – Session 2: Planning your international website journey
Once you know where you are you need to decide where you want to go. This session will take you through each website area you need to consider while building your international website plan. Creating your website roadmap will facilitate decision making and help you set achievable goals.
Wednesday 4th October, 10am to 11am – Session 3: Platforms, Providers and Preparing your Website Brief
You may take the decision to move your website onto another platform, which may involve sourcing and commissioning external web providers and preparing a website brief. Save time and resources by letting us share with you how best to do that.
Tuesday 10th October, 10am to 11am – Session 4: Creating and Adapting Content for an International Audience
Learn when to use English, how to present your content in an understandable format for those who don’t speak English as their first language, and when to use translated and localised content for international reach and appeal. Localised content is key to how your customers perceive your brand in international markets. Get it right, and you’ll connect with them on an emotional level, which will likely result in an increase in sales, an improved customer experience, and strengthened customer loyalty.
Tuesday 17th October, 10am to 11am – Session 5: Social Media 101
This session will focus on social media strategy essentials, including knowing your audience and where social media fits in your strategy and the customer journey. We will also look at how to research your international target audience and understand how they are engaging on social media platforms.
Thursday November 9th – Digital Trade Conference
Save the date. Come and learn much more about the opportunities in digital trade and meet with experts in the fields of artificial intelligence, website and social media design, content creation, software, data and much more. We will be announcing further details on this conference in the coming weeks.
Wednesday 15th November, 10am to 11am – Session 6: Search Engines. How they work, and what they look for on your website
If you have ever wondered how you might make your website rise up the Search Engine Results Page (SERPS), this session will take a practical look at what search engines need to see, and what you need to do, in order to increase the ranking of your pages.
Tuesday 21st November, 10am to 11am – Session 7: Increasing website traffic through paid and organic search
More web traffic means more customers. This session will cover content based, paid, social and affiliate methods of gaining customers. It will give you a good overview of a joined-up customer acquisition strategy using all the means paid and free to attract users.
Wednesday 29th November, 10am to 11am – Session 8: Maximising your website conversion rate (CRO) in 7 easy steps
A major advantage of CRO is that it helps you understand and segment your user to funnel them toward purchasing the products or services that will best meet their needs. This, in turn, results in more repeat customers, and more value per customer across their entire product experience. In this session we will introduce how to increase conversion rates into your website pages by keeping your website visitors on page, interacting, engaging and purchasing.
Tuesday 5th December, 10am to 11am – Session 9: How to track and monitor your website analytics to increase performance
Website analysis is the process of testing and reviewing a website’s performance for key metrics such as speed, traffic, search engine optimisation (SEO), and user experience. Each of these elements is a factor in your website’s success, meaning they directly affect the performance of your company. This session will look at using analytics to further refine your efforts to positively increase website performance.