Left to right: Martin Lewis-Stevenson (Pulse Group Media), Kerry Lewis-Stevenson (Pulse Group Media), Steve Rees (Square Media)
A new-look website bringing all the latest business news across Northamptonshire and superb new opportunities for marketing your business has been launched by Business Times, the county’s longest-established and most respected business newspaper.
A new-look website bringing all the latest business news across Northamptonshire and superb new opportunities for marketing your business has been launched by Business Times, the county’s longest-established and most respected business newspaper.
www.business-times.co.uk is now live and has been months in the making as Business Times’ new owners Pulse Group Media carefully researched exactly what its readers and advertisers – including the county’s leading business figures and decision-makers – wanted the site to deliver.
The new site has been designed and built by digital marketing specialists Square Media. The result is a site that is easy to navigate and contains all the information, news, comment and marketing opportunities for Northamptonshire’s business community.
“This is a real game-changer and a crucial part of our growth strategy for Business Times and its sister titles Business MK and the NN Pulse and MK Pulse magazines,” says Pulse Group media director Martin Lewis-Stevenson. “We are absolutely delighted with how the site looks, feels and works.”
Square Media and Pulse Group Media have been media partners since last year.
“When I started working at Square Media, an agency dedicated to providing outsourced marketing, I realised how little marketing we did for ourselves,” admits Square Media’s commercial manager Steve Rees.
“The Business Times newspaper was an obvious choice especially as it was now owned by Pulse Group Media which delivers 70,000 copies of their publications and had 210,000 readers across our target markets.”
Pulse Group Media’s printed publications – Business Times, Business MK and the lifestyle magazines MK Pulse and NN Pulse – are excellent, he adds. “However, the websites needed improvement. Between us both, despite ‘promoting’ our clients, we were neglecting our own marketing. How true it is. ‘The cobbler’s children have no shoes’.”
Square Media has advertised across Pulse Group Media’s four publications since the start of the partnership. “The benefits have been huge,” says Steve. “Better still, we won the contract to build four new websites for the group with the Business Times going live at the end of February 2022.”
www.business-times.co.uk covers the latest Northamptonshire business news every day, with more news than anywhere else, and contains a comprehensive archive of previous content still available where visitors can access the expertise of professionals across the county.
Martin praised the work of Square Media in developing and building the new site. “Square Media carried out surveys to determine our customers’ requirements and preferences,” he says. “They then used the data to design and build a bespoke website that is tailored absolutely to our customers.
“They have been great people to work with, very responsive and reassuring throughout the process.”
Work is also underway to enhance the website of Business Times’ sister title Business MK.
“Finding ways to market a business is easy, generating results and a positive ROI in such a crowded digital space is tough,’ says Steve. “Marketing takes time and requires consistent activity across a range of media. The old ‘Rule of Seven’ still applies – it takes at least seven marketing touch points before a target audience responds.
“Combining digital advertising such as website, social media, email, with print advertising is highly effective. While digital activity achieves huge reach, print advertising builds credibility and trust.
“We look forward to helping Pulse Group Media provide an integrated marketing solution for their clients to include print, website, email and social media.”