This means you can rest assured in the knowledge that any campaigns handled by us will be to the highest standard and all work carried out will be scrutinised by our professionals to ensure the best ROI from the campaigns.

If you would like to have our team take a look at your current AdWords campaigns and perform a free 14 day AdWords management trial where we look to implement small changes to increase the accounts profitability significantly to demonstrate the results we are capable of achieving.

If you have not tried AdWords before but would like to give it a try with as little outlay as possible then ask us about a free £100 Google AdWords voucher. All you need is the promotional code from us and £25 to spend and the Google will credit it you with £75.

Give us a call today on 01325 778 245 or email us at talk@curomarketing.com

This certification does not mean we have a partnership agreement with Google nor does it mean we are approved by them either. All this means for us and you is that we have demonstrated a high standard of knowledge regarding all things Google AdWords to Google themselves by passing their tests.

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Knowing not very much about businesses and incorporating them we did not actually get started on building the business until the October of that year with having to finish off our University course. This of course could of waited until we actually secured our first client which as it turned out was 4 months after we unofficially got going which was Feb 2010.

I think we stand testament to the whole idea of entrepreneurship and business start ups being exciting times as it was excitement that drove us to incorporate a year to early, it was excitement that drove us to push ahead and get something going rather than plan, plan, plan and then to still get it wrong as like I said, we had no idea about setting up a business. In February I had not long since turned 20 and Jonathan was a good 3-4 months away from joining me. We had an ambition, a goal, a strong desire to get this going and that is what we attribute to the fact that 4 years later we are still here. It has been one hell of a ride with a lot of ups and downs but one thing it has not been is dull.

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This is something we at Curo Marketing are very excited about getting stuck into immediately.

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Customer relationship management software - Capsule CRM

We found Capsule from a recommendation from a friend and have to say we have found it real easy to use and really cost effective too. We love the integrations that are available between Capsule and other business software such as Dropbox and MailChimp to name but a few and as anything that saves time and genuinely makes life that bit easier has to get a big thumbs up. Capsule is great for keeping up with what colleagues have been doing and seeing who they have been in contact with and how long ago that was. The sales pipeline/opportunities area is really easy to set up and customise to the way you work by adding steps and processes in the sales cycle and with the ability to add tracks to opportunities to ensure consistency across your opportunity and make sure Capsule works exactly how you do.

Capsule is free for up to 2 users on a limited plan or £8 a month per user so demonstrates real value for money.

Cloud storage/File management software - Dropbox

Dropbox for us was a real no brainer. We were meeting a lot of clients away from our office and with the addition of both desktop PC’s in the office and laptops to take to meetings it was becoming apparently obvious that we were missing a trick and spending way to much time backing up files from the PC’s to the laptops and vice versa so that we had everything we needed on both machines. We started using Dropbox over a year ago now and it has revolutionised file management within our business. The best part of our Dropbox story is, it hasn’t cost us a penny either. Dropbox offer a free plan of up to 2GB which until now we have never filled (We are getting really close and will be purchasing more space in the coming weeks). Its real easy to use as well, you simply go to their website, download Dropbox, it will install a folder in amongst your documents and pictures etc called Dropbox. You then simply save all your files to that folder that you would like on another machine, install Dropbox on the other machine and a bit like magic they will all the be there instantly so no more weekly syncing, backing up or CD’s and USB pens.

Dropbox has a free plan of upto 2GB for one user. It has a mobile app too which means that you can take your files wherever you go.

Invoicing/Time tracking software - Harvest

We have talked about Harvest in the past and have told clients/suppliers/contacts alike to get on board and get using it (Almost to the point of harassment) because its such a great piece of software. We must of been spending, in total, around 2-3 days every month typing out invoices manually in Excel until we found Harvest. We knew for some time that the actual sending of the invoices was taking far too long and ultimately costing us. So we searched for a solution to be able to automate recurring invoices as with our PPC management service we invoice every 30 days and ultimately we only needed the date and the invoice number changing on recurring invoices, new ones were even worse (I wont even go into the trouble we had remembering the last invoice number we used!). We came across Harvest, they had a free trial, we gave it a whirl. This is where we got the 2-3 days from as we continued going about the old invoices the same way but tracked the time with Harvest and we were gob smacked that it was taking so long for us to draw up the necessary paper work to be paid. Needless to say that when the trial ended and we were asked if we would like to pay for a plan with Harvest we snapped their hands off. We simply set new PPC clients up on a recurring invoice once and configure the recurrences (takes 30 seconds) and all we need to worry about is getting paid, Harvest also sends automated reminders to late paying clients.

Harvest has an awesome mobile app too that allows you to track time and expenses on the go should you find yourself at a clients office for e.g. and with plans starting from $19 per user per month its an absolute no brainer.

We would go as far as saying we would continue to use Harvest even if they added a zero to that figure, we rate and rely on it that much!

Email marketing software - MailChimp

MailChimp, like the others is such a great tool, a great free tool. We all collect business cards and email addresses and have databases of contacts so why not collate all of that information into lists on MailChimp and get sending emails out? With that persons permission of course! We use MailChimp to send out information on us such as what we have been doing, what we are currently doing and any offers (Not just our own) that we see as being relevant or appealing that particular audience.

MailChimp is free to send up to 12,000 emails per month and even has free templates you can use if you do not know any HTML. They also have a mobile app that allows you access to chatter which is like a kind of news feed page that tells you what’s going on etc and also the reports section so you can see who has opened/unopened/bounced etc and how many clicks you have had.

Please let us know what you think of these and if you have any suggestions of your own software you recommend or any blog post similar to this, we would more than happily feature it as a guest blog or show the love and link to it.

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Google AdWords is an advertising product of Google’s as well as their main source of revenue. Google AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and site-targeted advertising for both text, banner, and rich-media ads. With AdWords you can target local, regional, national and even international clients/customers on a budget that you decide and set. Google’s text ads are only small, one headline consisting of 25 characters and two additional text lines consisting of 35 characters each with a display URL that accompanies the ad and a destination URL that is unseen but is the URL you want the user to land on when they click your ad.

What makes Google AdWords better than any other form of advertising is that its not as hit and miss. You create an advert and then that advert is only shown to users searching for keywords you select. So if you are a website design agency in Darlington and you want people in Darlington looking for a website design agency you simply create a compelling ad and set that as a keywords with plurals, variations etc and only pay when a user clicks through to your website.

Click for more information on Google AdWords and a 5 basic tips video.

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The content management system will eventually be rolled out for the non developer audience where users will be able to install and use the content management system on their websites as well as developers who can use the API documentation to develop plugins and integrations.

Keep up to date with our blog for the launch of the first website on our in house developed content management system. We are expecting an early December launch.

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So we need your help as the winner will be decided by the amount of votes they receive. If you have 30 seconds to spare its literally two clicks and done. All you need to do is click the link below and click on the furthest right star under our website.

Here is the link to it http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/wotm

Thanks in advance and be sure to leave a comment below letting us know you have voted so that we know who to thank

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Now to win this all you have to do is..

**COMMENT – Simply comment below and tell us why you feel we should select you to win this awesome prize. Dont forget to include your name and contact details so if we do choose you at random we can in fact contact you to inform you of your victory.

Double your chances of winning with a second entry by also

TWEETING - I have just registered to win 2 years unlimited FREE #webhosting To enter yourself go to curomarketing.com/free-web-hosting-giveaway #CuroMarketing

That’s two chances to win! Dont forgot to follow us too for more great giveaways in the near future.

Even triple your chances to win by

LINKEDIN – Post the link on LinkedIn to your own network.

GOOD LUCK! Competition closes 1st November 2012, winner will be announced shortly after.

*Web hosting is an unlimited package on a shared hosting account and is subject to fair usage policies.

**Only one comment per person. A comment must be present on this post for you to be eligible to win. Tweeting and sharing the post on LinkedIn will only increase your chance once you have posted.

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If you have a project in mind that you are contemplating then please come and speak to us about funding as we can help you with your application and provide you with all necessary documentation needed.

40% off the value of your web project is a lot more money staying in your back pocket.

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If you would all you need to do is comment below with your email address so we can send over the promotional code before the 30th September when they expire. As long as the code is redeemed before that date the £75 credit can be placed on the account until ready to use.

You must also set up or have an account less than 14 days old for it to be credited to that account. Other than that anyone can have one so pop a comment below and we will get the code over to you immediately.

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