Boost Your Online Sales With E-Commerce Expert Niall McCann

Do you trade online? Are you happy with your number of sales? Does your website show off the best side of your business? Do you think you can do better? Do you know you can do better? Or would you just like to take that first step on the ladder of e-commerce?

Then Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has the course for you!

We will be hosting one-to-one e-commerce consultations with expert Niall McCann of Woolshop.ie on Wednesday, November 12^th.

E-commerce is becoming one of the fastest growing trends in business. Here are five reasons why it is important for your business.

In 2013 alone, 43% of Irish consumers made purchases online, while 2.6 million Irish people regularly shop online. According to a report by the Digital Marketing Institute, €4.1bn was spent on online shopping in Ireland in 2011, up from €2.96bn the previous year.

However, 75% of these purchases went through companies outside Ireland. That statistic alone highlights the opportunity for businesses in Ireland to capitalise and cash in on e-commerce.

The e-commerce clinics will be held on a one-to-one basis where e-commerce expert McCann will provide trouble shooting tips on areas such as improving online sales and developing your company’s website.

These clinics are a great opportunity for online businesses to pinpoint and discuss specific issues that will boost online sales. They will also act as an informative gateway for businesses thinking of going online to find out what e-commerce is all about. Just listen to the guys in the short YouTube clip below!

This is the second time Dungarvan Enterprise Centre will be running these workshops. Last year’s participants all benefited from McCann’s sessions and were able to implement his advice which resulted in an increase in online sales.

The fee for this one-to-one private consultation is just €30. Each individual consultation will last for one hour.

McCann’s e-commerce business, The Wool Shop, sells an extensive stock of knitting wool and knitting patterns. It is a family owned business that operates from McCann’s home in Bunmahon.

As a follow on from these clinics Dungarvan Enterprise Centre hopes to establish an e-commerce network. This would allow businesses to learn from each other in a peer-to-peer environment and benefit from each other’s expertise.

To book or for more information, contact Mags on 058 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Learn How to Create and Manage Your Own Wordpress Website at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre!

Need help managing and maximising your website's potential? Need help putting a website together to begin with? If so, Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has the course for you!

In conjunction with the Local Enterprise Office, Dungarvan Enterprise Centre will be hosting a Website Management and Strategy course on November 20^th.

The course, which will run for a full day at a cost of €80 per person, will be taught by industry expert Carol Faughnan.

In 2014, a website for your business is simply a necessity. If you are not online then you can bet that your competitors are! Having a website for your business gives online customers a glance into your shop window. Read here why you need a website. 

This course is suitable for people who have a Wordpress website but are not sure how to make the most of it, or for people who are looking to set up a Wordpress site for the first time. Wordpress is widely recognised as the best choice for a website. 

This course will provide you with the necessary skills to understand how to manage and run your company website while incorporating a marketing strategy. The extensive course outline will take you through the following areas: 

1. Getting Started 
   • What are the advantages of having a Website? 
   • Your Marketing Strategy
   • Your current online Presence? 
   • Discussion of Goals and Outcomes 
2. Setting up your Website 
   • Logging in 
   • Familiarising yourself with the Dashboard
   • Editing user profiles
   • Adding user profiles for staff
   • Configuring the Dashboard settings
3. Adding the right content to your Website
   • About posts and pages
   • Difference between pages and posts
   • Creating pages
   • Adding Images and thumbnails
4. Blogging 
   • Creating posts and generating titles
   • Text formatting 
   • Adding and managing hyperlinks
   • Adding Images, 
   • Youtube Videos 
   • Adding a photo gallery
   • Adding post categories and tags 
5. Customising your Website        
   • Installing and activating themes
   • Exploring the themes option
   • Installing plugins 
   • Info about various widgets and working with them
   • Setting up custom background and header images
6. Launching your online presence
• Submitting the site to search engines
• Managing users and permission levels
• Managing comments and controlling spam
• Backing up your website
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Adding social media options like facebook, twitter and many more    
• Your website Traffic                   

As well as a full day training in Website Management and Strategy, one-to-one email training will be provided prior to the event. This will allow Carol to give individual attention to each participant and to their specific marketing challenges on the day, ensuring maximium benefit from attendance.

The Wordpress course will run from 10AM until 4PM with a free lunch included at the interval.

To book a place on this course, or for more information, contact Mags at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre on 058 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Still not convinced? Check out this short YouTube clip explaining in 3 reasons why Wordpress is the best!

SALES STRATEGY WORKSHOP WITH MICHAEL GARLAND.

When: Tue 11th March, 9.30-13.00
Where: Town Hall, Augustine Street, Dungarvan 
How much: €35 per person 

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre are delighted to have secured Michael Garland founder of Biz Boost  Waterford and former CEO of Waterford Chamber of Commerce to give an interactive work shop on his Sales Strategy “Best is Best”
The workshop explores some of the key techniques needed to drive a business forward in today’s tough economic climate. The interactive session will consist of Michael giving an introduction of his background in Sales and Marketing. His own key skills and traits and how he found his own unique selling pitch in terms of selling himself and the business. Some of his talking points

• Getting rid of the attitude “I can’t sell”
• Getting people out of their comfort zone
• How business can go wrong
• How to bring staff on board with selling and contributing to the business
• How to make your business and staff stand out from the crowd
• Communication ideas
• How to get your customers to love you

About Michael Garland
Michael is a vibrant inspirational and engaging leader with a hand on approach to work. He has created a proven track record, is an extremely successful negotiator and has a very long and successful list of professional achievements.
In 2013 Michael founded BizBoost in Waterford. The company specialises in working with SME’s to realign Sales and Marketing strategies.  From 2009 to 2013 he held the position of C.E.O of Waterford Chamber of Commerce and under his guidance and hard work the chamber has returned to profitability.
Previous to this he held the position of Director of Golf at the Waterford Castle Hotel &Golf Club where he quickly built the reputation as a respected industry leader. Michael has also held positions in the Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland and the Turret Group England.

Some testimonials from companies that have dealt with Michael and BizBoost.

Business Owner & Managing Director:
“Michael Garland is an excellent person to have on any Business Team. Straight Talking – Action Focused. Since joining the Team, on a change management, mentoring and coaching basis, Michael has focused on sales, marketing and restructuring activities and we have seen an immediate result. He is the guy who will always be on the Winning Team.  Strongly recommended.”

Business Owner:
“Michael listens, reviews and coaches actions,with individuals taking responsibility for their own change. Michael’s winning influence on our company is an attributable factor to our business winning a number of National Industry Awards in 2013. We will continue to use Michael as an impact trainer/coach/mentor as part of our Award Winning Team.”

For more information on this workshop contact Mags on 058-23598 or email:dungarvanec@gmail.com

Research on Digital Marketing carried out by Dungarvan Enterprise Centre

Research on Digital Marketing carried out by DEC

Q.1 Businesses in our survey were predominantly Professional Services at 30.6%, followed by retail at 24.5% and Manufacturing and Business Services at 14.3%.  IT businesses had very low representation at 6.1%. This would be a fair representation of businesses in Dungarvan. 

Other (26.5%) included:

Auctioneers & Valuers x 1

Art & Print/Art tutoring x 1

Chiropractic x 1

Accomodation & Training x 2

Letting Property for Regeneration Centre x 1

Sports/Leisure x 2

Tourism(Ralley School) x 1

Online Training x 1

Social Enterprise x 1

Holistic Therapies x 1

Construction x 1

Q.2 Businesses in our survey could benefit from training workshops in the use of digital tools with 89.6% giving a yes response and a 10.4% no response.

Q.3 Businesses in our survey would like training in the following areas with online advertising being the most sought after course requirement followed by getting sales from your wesite 55.3%, understanding google analytics and facebook 46.8%, using apps to get sales 44.7% and building a word press 42.6%.

Other:-
What are cookies What is best system to use Apple/iPhone vs Google / Android x 1
Upskillingin in eMarketing and running a business availing of software packages x 1
MediaTraining/Merchandising			x  1
Choosing the right CRM and implementation x 1
Project Management / SIGMA course FETAG 5/6

Q. 4 There are services we could offer which would make businesses online activity more effective 51% with a yes response and 49% no response.