Entries by Darren Stevens

Some of our favourite Marketing tools that can make your life easier

Marketing in today’s multi-channel, digital world can sometimes feel a bit a confusing with so many options and an almost endless “to do list”. To make your life just that bit easier we have listed some of our favourite tools. Listed below in no particular order we hope you find the list to be useful.

1. Google My Business.
A great “window” on the number of people that are potentially looking at your business before they make contact with you. Also a good promotional platform to utilise by ensuring your business is the most ranked and highest ranked in your area and also the free post updates functionality.

2. SmartSurvey.
Gloucestershire based we find this survey tool easier and better to use than its larger rival SurveyMonkey. If you are not already using surveys then consider using them. They are great for PR, customer insight, gauging customer satisfaction and also recruiting testimonials to use in other forms of Marketing.

3. CANVA.
We use this tool all the time for creating great images to use in social media. It is easy to use, but we would still usually save this for those most important posts that you want to look really good.

4. Website Grader.
A free tool from Hubspot that lets you effectively look under “the bonnet” of your website to find things that you may want to fix. Yes the tool is of course biased towards aspects that Hubspot can help you with, but then it looks at every website in the same way, so it can be a good tool to use to see how your website compares with competitors.

5. Bitly.
A great tool to shorten links for inclusion in social media. Only use it where you need to though as people may be less likely to click on a link where they cannot see where it leads them.

6. PicResize.
A handy free online tool that allows you to resize photos to different sizes or crop them.

7. Pexels.
A handy online source of free imagery for use on social media and elsewhere. For paid for images our favourite source is Shutterstock.

8. Cookiebot.
A great free web tool that will let you know what web links you have embedded in your website. Useful for example for ensuring your Privacy Policy is accurate or for checking whether or not you have Google Analytics on your website.

9. Google News Alerts.
A great free tool from Google that lets you keep abreast of breaking news in your industry. Also great for sourcing content to use in social media.

10. Google Analytics.
We saved the best till last. Your website is undoubtedly one of your most valuable marketing assets and it is vital that you should be using this to track how your website is performing, where your traffic is coming from and what sources of traffic are triggering marketing goals.

We could have listed many more, but we hope that this handy list of some of our favourites will come in handy.

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What can we learn from the £14 KitKat?

KitKat has been grabbing the national press headlines this week with the announcement that it will be selling bespoke hand made £14 KitKats from its website and selected John Lewis stores in the run up to Christmas. Chocolate fans will be able to choose from 1,500 flavour combinations. They will be asked to choose their base chocolate from either milk, dark, white or ruby – the pink-coloured chocolate derived from Ruby cocoa beans – and then select up to three flavours ranging from rose petals to popping candy and honeycomb.

But what can other businesses learn from such a move? First and perhaps most obvious is the fact that doing something sufficiently different from what you would ordinarily do (and a price difference of £13.45 over your standard product is a pretty big difference when your standard product is 55p) can grab the headlines. Okay it does help if you are an iconic household brand, but then others have also grabbed headlines with things such as the UK’s most expensive sandwich or cocktail. Whilst clearly KitKat hope to sell lots of these, the move is arguably justified by the publicity gained alone. Of course what is particularly clever about the bespoke and hand-made nature of this product is that they do not risk being left with lots of stock.

Next lesson is never stop innovating. Whilst the standard four figure bar is the most recognisable of all their products, KitKat has released a staggering 350 plus, different variations! In this instance they are using the build up to Christmas as a trigger, what are yours? Changes in the marketing landscape present opportunities for us – for example Chrome and Google’s move against insecure web-sites, the introduction of GDPR and the growing importance of Google My Business have all been good reasons to start conversations with current and potential clients.

Give people things to talk about, photograph and share on social media. I am sure there will be a stampede of people looking to be the first in their circle of friends to have bought a £14 KitKat. I was reminded of this only a week or so ago when my wife and I went for the Gin and Tea Tasting Menu at Mensahib Gin and Tea bar in Cheltenham. Every dish and particularly every cocktail was a work of art and cried out for sharing on social media.

Look for premium price opportunities. Any business will tell you how infuriatingly hard it is to make good profits, so any opportunity to charge a premium can be very welcome. A web and design company that we work with for example has introduced a premium, rush charge for projects that involve work outside of conventional hours and why not? Each client can then determine whether or not they really need it by then, whereas were the premium charge not in place then there is no deterrent to setting very strict deadlines.

All in all I would say fair play to Nestle and Kitkat – a job well done. Should they wish to send us a KitKat hamper for helping to publicise their move, then it would, of course be welcome.

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And they are under Starter’s orders …..

Whether or not you are into Horse Racing there is an undeniable buzz in the air in Prestbury, Cheltenham and Gloucestershire as The Festival approaches. The statistics surrounding the Cheltenham Festival are quite staggering, here are just a few:

The economic benefit to the county is estimated at around £100 million
In 2016 236,472 pints of Guinness were consumed on the course
£2.3 million is taken out of cash machines in the town
Approximately 10,000 Irish racing fans come to the Festival
134,600 travel through the town’s train station
20,000 bottle of champagne are served at the racecourse
1 ton of beef is eaten on the course
The shuttle buses from the town centre to the course make 80,000 journeys
A typical jockey will consume no more than 1,500 calories in a day

The race meeting is also a focal point for Marketing of all kinds. For over a week now the betting companies have been promoting their Festival offers and there will be all kinds of stunts from them during the week to get their brand in front of the racegoers. The picture that accompanies this blog is of the giant Hollywood style Paddy Power sign put up on Cleeve Hill overlooking the course in 2010. Local pubs go to great lengths to promote their racing breakfasts. The local council offers free parking in its car parks to tempt shoppers into the town centre during the lull when the punters are at the racecourse and the Business Improvement District runs a competition for the best racing themed window.

Aside from the direct economic impact, what is the value to the town of being “put on the map” by this event? It is very difficult to estimate this, but a campaign to raise this level of name and brand awareness of Cheltenham would most certainly cost millions.

In the ten years of running Prestbury Marketing we cannot recall receiving an enquiry from a business or business person whilst they were visiting Prestbury for the racing, but maybe this year will be the year? If you or your business need help with your marketing or PR then feel free to get in touch.

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Pupil changing name of School to “Prison and Hell on Earth” is a lesson for all businesses

Hornsea School and Language College in East Yorkshire was recently “rebranded” on Google as Hornsea Prison & Hell on Earth. The temporary change perhaps unsurprisingly attracting national headlines.

Behind this enterprising prank is a lesson for all businesses of the importance of claiming your Google My Business page. This page is what produces the box that appears top right when you search for your business and also generates the red circle on a Google Map when people search for your category of business on Google e.g. Marketing Consultants. What some businesses don’t realise, is that if you don’t set up your own page, Google will set up one for you (as I suspect happened in the case of this school).

You can tell whether your business has been claimed because if it hasn’t – wording along the lines of “Own this business?” will appear as a link on the page. Theoretically, nobody other than you will be able to claim your business as part of the verification process of claiming your page is sending a postcard to your physical address with a code that you need to enter online. But this doesn’t stop somebody from suggesting a change in the listing to Google, something they actively encourage. The problem is that if you don’t own the page there is nobody for Google to contact to approve or reject the change and it will therefore automatically happen. In all probability, this is what happened in this case with the school.

But preventing unwanted or incorrect changes is not the only reason you should claim your page. Far from it. So what can you do once you own your page?

You can add your own photos.
You can fully populate your page. E.g. opening hours, facilities, category of business (you can be in more than one), website, telephone number.
You can enter a short promotional description of your business.
You can add events to your page.
You can run promotional posts that include a photo, text and a call to action button with a link (unless you are a hotel that doesn’t have this functionality on their listing). These are free (at the moment) and will drive more people to your website and are a great way to share content you are creating for other purposes like blogs.
You can respond to reviews.
You get access to the insights which shows how many people saw your listing in the last 30 days (if Google read this, can we have the ability to set a date range for this like with Google Analytics please), how they found it and what actions they took e.g. called you, visited your website or asked for directions.

Impressive functionality I am sure you will agree, all free and a unique insight to what is happening before people make contact with you. One way of thinking about this page is that is effectively extends the sales funnel to allow you to understand the dynamics of what is happening even before you are aware of a potential customer.

So the lesson from all of this, is if you have not claimed your page do it today (we can help you with this if you struggle). Once you have claimed it or if you had done already, make sure you make the most of the functionality and keep an eye on the results. If you don’t have the time or resources to do all of this, then businesses like us can do this for you, feel free to contact us.

One final cheeky request. If you have found this blog useful, or you have already worked with us, please free to Google us and leave us a review (or do the same on our Facebook page). Ask your customers to do the same as the more reviews and the higher the score you have, the more likely you will be to appear higher in category searches and the more positive first impression you will give.

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20 questions to ask yourself to understand whether your Marketing is working as well as it can be.

To say we live in interesting times is an understatement. Uncertainty around the world of politics, our relationship with Europe and the economy are occupying our minds daily (if not hourly). Combine this with the fact that despite all the labour saving tools at our disposal (both domestically and in our businesses) we all seem […]

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New Pizza Hut “Now that’s delivering” TV advert – what is there not to like?

Pizza Hut has launched a bold new TV advertising campaign (watch the advert here) with the ambitious aim of “owning” the UK pizza delivery market in 2019. An audacious aim perhaps, but you have to admire the advert – well you don’t “have to”, but it undeniably has a lot going for it. The campaign is in the context of results for Pizza Hut (for last available full year to 3rd December 2017) that saw sales drop from £233m to £225m and a UK market for delivery and takeaway pizza that is reportedly worth £1,125m.

The advert has humour, very clear, strong unique selling points and even manages to repeatedly take a swipe at its main competitor, where we are left in no doubt who they are referring to despite the fact they don’t mention them by name. Admittedly in a 60 second commercial but Pizza Hut manage to squeeze in strong references to their taste (backed up by consumer research), 30 minute delivery guarantee, the fact they reward loyalty and their value with their “£5 Favourites”.

There is a well respected and still often used Marketing Model called AIDA, that outlines the steps that you have to take a consumer through to get them to respond to any form of marketing. The steps being (getting) Attention, (creating) Interest, (generating) Desire and (prompting) Action. We would argue that this ticks all these “pizza” boxes.

Only time will tell how successful the campaign will be, but it will be interesting to see and also see how Domino’s Pizza respond (surely they won’t just fall over?). Let the battle commence.

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Social Media – What’s New – 12/11/2017


It has been a busy week in the world of social media, as Jenny Jervis outlines in this week’s update.

Instagram

Stat-attack

Instagram Stories have now reached 300 million daily active users, which is up from 250 million for in June 2017. This platform continues to grow at a rapid pace and provides great opportunities for businesses. Get in touch if you want to know how Instagram could work for your business.

Instagram now lets you add any photos or videos to your Stories

Instagram have responded to feedback from users to be able to add ‘any’ pictures or videos from their camera roll to insta stories – not just those taken in the last 24 hours. This is live now. Go check it out.

Re-engagement box

Instagram has rolled out a new Stories “re-engagement box”. The box features a carousel of vertical, still image preview tiles for other users’ stories that are twice as big as the Stories bar found at the top of the feed. They show up between regular Instagram posts when you scroll through the main feed.

Stop-Motion camera feature

Instagram is testing a new Stop-Motion camera tool for Stories that will allow users to take a long series of photos, which can then be turned into a GIF that can be edited before posting, all within the app. This is just in test phase at the moment but will be a great new feature when rolled out.

All the drama

You may have noticed that Instagram has added a Superzoom camera effect with dramatic sound effect to insta stories. This is another creative was of capturing funny moments to complement Boomerang and Rewind. The video lasts 3 seconds, but can be extended to 15 if you hold down the shutter button longer.

Follow the hashtag

Instagram appear to be testing a new feature with some of its user base that allows the user to search for and follow a hashtag within the app. This will allow users to follow things based on their interests instead of what the algorithm thinks they may be interested in.

Facebook

New tools rolled out for Group Admins and Members

Facebook have rolled out several features to help page admins ‘grow and manage their communities’. The features include welcome posts for new joiners and badges that identify admins, moderators and new members. Insights have also been improved to include helpful tips like scheduling posts at times when members are most engaged.

Rank by relevance

Facebook started re-sorting new notifications based on what it thinks is “most important to you,” rather than chronological order. The updated Notifications tab is now separated into two sections, New and Earlier. The New section lists recent notifications that “you may not have seen yet”, based on how relevant Facebook thinks they are to you. This means that notifications in the New tab “may appear to be out of order”. The Earlier tab shows notifications that you have already seen and lists them in the order in which they were received.

Facebook polls

Facebook is “officially launching Facebook Polls with the added options of using photos or GIFs as answers.” This feature was launched earlier this week.

Account switching

Facebook appears to be testing a new button in the main navigation of the site that allows users to switch between accounts on the platform. This will be a great feature when rolled out for those of us who have multiple accounts.

Measuring Facebook Ad Campaigns

Two new measurement solutions have been introduced to make it easier for businesses to test and optimise Facebook ad campaigns.

  1. Creative split testing – enabling advertisers to A/B test different ad formats, visuals, headlines, and calls to action to determine which version drives the best results – launching November
  2. Test and Learn – allowing advertisers to experiment with different marketing strategies and find the one that “most effectively achieves their business goals” – launching early 2018.

Twitter

BIG news on Twitter this week as they finally rolled out 280 characters on Tuesday 7th November 2017 after announcing its plans in September, double the amount of characters previously allowed on the platform. The move has been introduced to allow users to express more of their thoughts without running out of room.

The increase has been met with controversy as some users think Twitter has lost its main USP, and that it will make Tweets less readable as longer tweets will fill timelines. What are your thoughts?

Annoyingly, you still can’t edit a tweet, let’s hope that comes next!

Pinterest

Boards-within-boards

Announced this week, Pinterest is introducing ‘Board sections’, which allows users to create sections within boards. So for example if you were planning a wedding, you could create components within that board for each element, let’s say a flowers section, or a dress section. The feature acts like a folder or a filing cabinet, tidying up the user experience.

Other news

Amazon are adding augmented reality shopping to the iOS11 app. The feature allows the customer to use their smartphone camera to visualise thousands of online products like furniture, toys, decor, and more in their own living spaces.

WhatsApp now allows users to recall and delete messages that were sent by mistake in a group or an individual chat. Successfully deleted message will be replaced with “This message was deleted” to everyone involved in the conversation.

Don’t forget that we offer a wide range of social media services, including a fast start service for new businesses or brands, full outsourcing of social media activity or tailored training specifically for you and your organisation. Find out more about our social media services here.

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What’s new in the world of Social Media

This is the first in a series of regular updates from Jenny Jervis on what’s new or interesting in the world of social media. The Internet of things The Internet of Things is big news for social media marketers due to the increase of devices that will be hooked up to the web. Its forecast […]

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