Category Archives: Soula

Soula Move Offices!

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Its been a huge couple of weeks for Soula with us taking the plunge and getting our very own offices!

We previously shared offices with our good partners over at MoreNiche and Zooki Digital but building on our success we decided it’s time to move out on our own.

Here are some initial photos from the office but we are going to get you some higher quality ones once someone remembers to bring their camera in (!).

In our reception area you’ll find a warm Soula welcome, some comfy couches and our logo styled windows. Continue reading →

Soula Charity Day

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Everyone at Soula likes to have a little fun every now and then.  At the same time, we like to raise a bit of money for Charity.

The chosen Charity was Help for Heroes.  Help for Heroes raises money to support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded in the service of their country. We feel this is a worthy cause and we have done our best to raise a bit of money for them.

Continue reading →

Cat in SEO

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The newest member to the SEO team, Catherine has picked it up fast providing quality SEO advice to a number of our key clients.

Qualifications: 9 A-Levels in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Music, Law, Criminology, Sociology, Psychology and General Studies

Work experience: An Account Manager for Smart Source UK between 2006 to 2008, Catherine worked on accounts for a number of clients including Rentokil, Pirtek, Terrapin, Chelsea Artisans, South Leicestershire College and Woodteam Ltd

Joined Soula: 2008 as a New Business Assistant, Catherine progressed to the position of SEO Executive towards the end of 2008

Hobbies: A member of the Nottingham Arts Theatre as a rehearsal pianist and Music Director, Catherine loves to scuba dive, read graphic novels and watch Japanese films in her spare time

Catherine’s darkest secret: “Cat hates bunnies after watching Watership Down. In all honesty who wouldn’t after watching all those evil bunnies?”- Katie Clarke, SEO Executive

Interesting fact about Catherine: “She’s hard-core! She did ballet for 12 years, is a grade 8 pianist, appeared on ‘A song for Christmas’ when she was 15 and has got more qualifications than you can shake a stick at!” –Rowena

Row in Copywriting

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Never far from a chocolate bar or a dictionary, Rowena writes copy for all of Soula’s core internal and external clients, giving her a breadth of knowledge in a variety of different industries and niches.

Qualifications: BA (Hons) English, MA in Creative Writing (both at Nottingham Trent University)
Work Experience: involved in the writing, editing, proofreading and publication of her Universities MA anthology, Rowena has worked in a variety of fields – library assistant and retail – before joining the Soula team

Joined Soula: 2008 as a Copywriter

Hobbies: Keen to publish her MA dissertation as her first novel, Rowena loves spending her free time doing anything creative – painting, writing and organising her wedding.

Rowena’s claim to shame: “I have got devil horns, no joke. After my sister dropped me on a concrete floor – head first – when I was six, my forehead became more angular forming 2 distinct points at the side.”

Katy on Rowena: “Rowena is the number one person to sit next to at a dinner party. Because of her job she knows a bit of something about everything… from property prices in Kent to the latest Celebrity diet – this girl is like a fact machine!”

Meet The Team : James Web Developer

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James nearly joined the Royal Navy before luckily deciding that his career lay in online marketing (Phew!)

Qualifications: BSc Hons Multimedia Computing at Staffordshire University

Work experience: Prior to joining the Soula team, James spent a year out in Munich, Germany (during his sandwich year) working for the IABG, a Ministry of Defence contractor. Required to maintain and develop their department’s internal staff information portal, James worked on numerous other projects including improving communication between departments.

Joined Soula: 2008 as a Developer

Hobbies: An avid follower of extreme sports, James can’t seem to get enough of them. From exercising at the gym to playing football, if he could he would go snowboarding all the time. Outside of work, James likes listening to music and messing around with graphical design and digital art – anything do with multimedia

Some interesting facts about James: “I have got so many stories it’s scary. To sum up my best one though: I nearly became a fighter pilot in the Royal Navy; I once fell asleep while running home drunk (never a good idea); the first time I did a skydive my parachute failed and I once ate a fruit pastel sandwich – yum.”

Thinking on James when speaking to a female interviewee: “Yeah, I do the same as Chad, but better (flirt much!)”

RSS Feeds – Why do They Matter?

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You could easily argue that this niche is completely outside my field, but in many ways it is not.

You see, RSS feeds are a great way to increase the number of subscribers to your website. Either through subscriptions to your newsletters, news stories or to your online marketing campaign as a whole, RSS feeds can help you to create a solid base of subscribers who will happily spread news of your website across the internet. Continue reading →

Soula in the headlines

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In a recent bid to up our game in the offline world, Soula has launched a new PR strategy assisted by Eden PR, Nottingham. Their first press release not only made it into the business section of the Evening Post but also onto the www.thisisbusiness-eastmidlands.co.uk site. The article went like this:

A NOTTINGHAM design agency that has doubled in size in the last 12 months is now looking to grow by a further 30% with the appointment of four new key staff members.

Website design business Soula says that, over the last two years, it has experienced a “huge” increase in enquiries from companies and organisations looking to invest in digital marketing solutions.

Managing director Martin Pykett said: “I have to say, without embarrassment, that we are experiencing a boom period.

“Clients are looking for new and more sophisticated options to keep their brands front of mind with customers.”

Soula’s clients operate in industries like music, health, education and finance, with an increasing number of enquiries from the pharmaceutical sector and gambling organisations.

If you are interested in working for Soula – see our latest vacancies here

New Puppy!

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This is Ollie, Our New Puppy!

As I have been fairly sensible with my last couple of posts I thought it was time for a not so sensible one.

Recently I made a deal with my partner that if he “needed” a new car I needed a puppy.  I thought this was a good deal and tried to sell it to him, he didn’t seem convinced until he found the car he wanted and then the shoe was on the other foot and he had to convince me that it was ok for him to spend money on a car.  Continue reading →

Getting It Right the First Time Doesn’t Work in Marketing

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Some of the worst advice a parent can ever give a child is “Something worth doing is worth doing right the first time.”  We’ve all heard that haven’t we?  But looking at things objectively, when have we ever done anything right the first time?  Very rarely.

And truth be known, when it comes to online marketing, things are never really “right”. They can always be improved upon through split testing and monitoring the reactions of your site visitors.  The problem that a lot of site owners run into is that they feel they have to get things right the first time and as a result, never do anything.

In marketing, anything is better than nothing provided you’re determined to measure the results your efforts are producing.  If you try something and it works, great.  Keep improving on that.  If you try something and it doesn’t work as you had hoped at very least you have a starting point from which to improve.

On the other hand, if you’re so concerned about getting it right that you never apply anything you’ll never get to the point where you have something to improve upon.  Sure, you’ll never fail but you’ll never have any chance of success either and isn’t the lack of success a pretty good definition of failure?

Marketing is all about getting your ideas out to as many people as you possibly can.  Some will reject them. Some will resent you for marketing to them. Others will appreciate what you have to offer and will become customers, maybe even friends.

This last group is what we’re looking for when we’re marketing but we’ll never find them or more accurately, they’ll never find us if we don’t consistently put our marketing efforts out there for them to find. Don’t wait to get it right. Get it out there, measure the results and improve on things as necessary.