Christmas Advent Calendar

Welcome to our Enlightened Advent Calendar

In true Advent tradition we will be posting a daily advent Alphabet in the run up to Christmas. Make sure to check back each day for more... We hope you enjoy!

A is for Avatar - an avatar is an animated or graphical character, cartoon or picture used to represent an individual in a game, chat room or website. Will you be getting any games in your stocking this Xmas that might need an avatar? Feel free to share yours below...

B is for Buy One Get One Free - does what it says on the tin really - did you take advantage of any good BOGOFs on Black Friday or Cyber Monday this year? Let us know below if you snapped up any bargains...

C is for Cookie - A small data file added to an end users computer which allows a website to identify the visitor when they return again. Although at this time of year we prefer the other type of cookie! Check out this festive Oreo ad.

D is for Digital Marketing - Digital Marketing is all about the new world of Inbound Marketing and making it easier to communicate with your customers, not just shouting about how wonderful you are. It's not all about you! Are you thinking of trying to bolster your business sales this Xmas using a digital marketing campaign? Let us know how you plan to do this and we’ll give you a shout outon social media.

E is for Email Marketing - Email marketing is often maligned and abused but if used correctly email marketing can be a great way of driving digital marketing success. Just don't over do it and definitely don't spam! Have a look at these top tips!

F is for Facebook - Facebook is the king of social networking (in the Western World at least) with reputedly more than a billion active users. Whilst under pressure of late with rumours of teenage defections, Facebook still has a lot to offer on both a personal and a business level. Check out these status updates for a bit of light relief...https://www.facebook.com/FunnyStatusUpdate

G is for Googlewhack! Have you got what it takes to hit up Google with a search that returns only one result? Sounds impossible? Well, it virtually is but still worth a game of Googlewhack in the office. Our best was 112,000! Have a go and let us know your best but we apologise in advance if it ruins your day and you get in trouble with your boss! Don't say we didn't warn you - it's addictive... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlewhack

<H is for Humblebrag! Ah, yes the good old Humblebrag. Have you ever been guilty of this heinous crime or do you cringe when someone you know bigs themselves up on social media with a superficial hint of humility? Check outhttps://twitter.com/Humblebrag for some great examples, but would you be brave enough to nominate yourself or someone you know as the King or Queen of Humblebrag-ville?

I is for Infomercial! An infomercial is a commercial that is very similar in appearance to a news program, talk show, or other non-advertising program content. Have a look at these cringeworthy infomercials! Let’s hope you don’t get any of these useless gifts for Xmas... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raUDOPD5LbQ

J is for Just in Time! The world of online ecommerce needs a well oiled supply chain to make sure your goods are stocked, packed and delivered on time, Have a look at this fantastic new addition to Amazon’s supply chain -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98BIu9dpwHU

K is for Keywords! What is your audience typing into Google to find your website? Understanding keywords relevant to your business can really help to improve your search engine ranking and drive more quality traffic to your site. Have you tried Google's Keyword Planner toolhttps://adwords.google.com/or what do you use for your keywords? Let us know below...

L is for Landing Page! You've set up your site, developed a great offer and doing everything to pull your audience in. So where do you take them? Taking them to your home page after all that effort is a bit of a waste - why not set up a simple landing page with minimal branding to capture their details and sell them your wares? That's the beauty of the humble landing page! But do you ever get an annoying ‘404’ error when you click on a link? Have a look at how creative Virgin has been with theirs - http://www.virgin.co.uk/fail

M is for Mobile! With mobile internet access through the roof Mobile Marketing should now be an important aspect of your marketing mix. Is your company website fully optimised for mobile devices? If not, you could be missing out on a whole host of new business.

Over the last year have you noticed your own habits changing? In fact, have you dared to do any of this year's Christmas shopping on your mobile? Let us know below!

N is for Neuromarketing! Ever wondered how you (or your children) have been convinced you NEED something really badly? Could it be that the latest Christmas Ad has tapped your inner psyche using neuromarketing? Read this interesting article on Mashable and decide for yourself: Mashable

O is for Online Advertising! More and more companies are opting to advertise online, however, despite the many hours of carefully targeted planning you don't always get the results you are looking for - check out these hilarious online ads gone wrong...

P is for Pop-Up! Do those annoying little pop-up boxes get in your way when you're trying to read something on the web? Do you honestly read these ads or are you like us and frantically look for the Close [X] box? Read more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-up_ad (or here's a handy video to watch on getting rid of any pesky adverts on your computer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8122imwzQyQ)

Q is for QR codes! QR codes are those bizarre fuzzy looking boxes that appear on different adverts and look like this one of the left. Have you seen our Secret Seasonal Offer behind today's QR code. Feel free to scan it and have a look...

R is for Really Simple Syndication or RSS for short. Do you use RSS feed's to speed up your information consumption? Here's a handy guide if you want to find out more... Why not sign up to our Digital Marketing and Social Media Feed by clicking on the orange RSS icon on your left?

S is for Social Media! We've all come to love Social Media - haven't we??? But hot on the heels of those Humblebraggers here's some really annoying behaviour from the 'un'sociables…http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/annoying-facebook-behavior

T is for Twitter! Well, what can we say apart from "We Tweet You A Merry Christmas!". It seems everyone has a Twitter account these days, but check out some of these funny fake accounts - Our fave is @thetweetofgod

U is for Unmentionables! Unmentionables are items considered "too delicate" to advertise including sanitary towels, condoms or incontinence pads. Watch this hilarious video advertisement from the "unmentionable" Bodyform CEO... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpy75q2DDow #legend

V is for Viral Marketing! Modern life can be quite intense at times so we all deserve a bit of light relief - and along came Viral Marketing designed to be passed from friend to friend whilst at the same time spreading a specific marketing message. The practice has spawned a whole new genre of funny viral videos - many just designed for blatant self promotion and others for what the creator calls art (ahem!). What was your fave viral vid this year? Why not check out this cool blog http://www.viralviralvideos.com/

W is for Weblogs! It's all about the content these days. If you have a message to deliver you need to build up your authority through quality content and no better way than blogging. What blogs do you follow? Have you signed up to ourblogyet?

X is for Xanado! We could have gone with something like XML, but come on, it's Christmas - so how about you Define your strategy, Attract your audience, Engage with killer content and Convert some great sales to help your company achieve Enlightened results and take you to Xanadu! Check out this videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m1UWSD-FaA - or read the famous poem from S.Coleridge about the mystical nirvana called Xanadohttp://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173247

Y is for Yahoo! That once great search engine and now potentially a great player(again)if the number of acquisitions is anything to go by! http://blog.ecornell.com/5-key-strategies-innovation-yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer/ 

Z is for ZZZ! Merry Christmas everyone - this is the end of this year's Digital Advent Calendar. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. So we're off now to catch a few ZZZ's, drink a few fine beverages and eat too much turkey! Have a good one and see you on the other side! http://mashable.com/2013/12/10/nap-pillow/

Merry Christmas From All Of Us At Enlighten IC!!!