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 […]

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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 […]

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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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2019 – what is it likely to mean to the world of Marketing?

As one year draws to a close and another is just about to start, it is a good time to try and look forward to the next year and reflect on likely changes over the next 12 months and how these may impact on your marketing and priorities. In this blog we look at some of the key themes that we think are going to emerge.

1. The growth of voice search

With the phenomenal growth in the likes of Amazon Echo, Amazon Dot and Google Home it is little wonder that volumes of voice searches are climbing fast. Estimates already suggest that 20% of Google Searches on mobiles are voice searches. By 2020 it is predicted that every major brand will have a voice strategy. It is also likely that we will see Google introduce a new category of ad campaign specifically for voice searches. Google’s own research has shown that “near me now” searches have grown by 150% over the last two years.

What can you do straight away to enhance your voice search presence? First and foremost if you have not already done so, claim your Google My Business listing (more on these later), ensure they are fully populated. Voice searches are 3 times more likely to be local in their nature. If you are not already doing so, start blogging and try to build into these the longer question type phrases that people may use e.g, How can I improve my marketing in 2019?

2. Embrace Google My Business and make the most of it, whilst it is all still free

Hopefully if you are reading this, you will have already claimed your Google My Business page. These are the boxes that appear top right when you search for a specific brand or company (you can see ours here) and what drives the maps with red teardrops on when you search a category (see below example).

Map of marketing consultants cheltenham

If you haven’t already claimed your page, then do it now.  If you search for your business, and a box appears with wording something along the lines of “Do you own this business” or “Claim this business” then click on this and follow the steps to claim the page (Google has set up pages for many existing businesses in readiness for them to claim them). When you Google if no page exists then go to the Google My Business homepage and click on the green button start now.

See how you compare with reviews, both in terms of number and score. Having more reviews and a higher score can be very powerful for businesses where their market is predominantly local. Cheeky mention that if you work with us and haven’t reviewed us on Google or Facebook, please feel free to do so.

Get into the habit of posting regular Post Updates. These can be highly effective and are completely free promotional updates that appear in your Google My Business box. Post regularly and compare their performance to hone these as a tool. These are completely free at present, but we would not be surprised if 2019 saw Google introduce charges for these. We have seen many of our clients see very good results from these this year.

3. Video’s importance will continue to grow

Opinions differ on the extent to which videos on your website can help with the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of the site. Cisco however predict that 82% of global consumer internet activity will be video related by 2021.

Why else might you want to embrace video if it may or may not benefit SEO? A growing proportion of people prefer to watch a video than a long block of text. Even in a study of business executives when asked whether they would prefer video or text, 59% said video. Embedding videos on your website can reduce the bounce rate on a page and increase the dwell time on a page which can be beneficial for the Google quality store. Also other sites are more likely to link to pages with video on them. One study found that 85% of interactions can be attributed to images on social media posts, whereas another suggested that video can outperform static images by over 130%.

Whilst all of this is good news for video production companies, more home grown knowledge based videos and animated style videos that businesses can produce at a modest cost are also likely to increase.

4. Internal Marketing (or Internal Communications) will grow in importance

We are currently operating in a very tight job market with historically low levels of unemployment and shortages of skilled employees in many sectors. On a regular basis, we hear clients say that one of their biggest challenges is finding skilled people.

Despite this situation many firms (particularly medium sized ones who perhaps don’t have a dedicated resources, yet also don’t have the advantages that much smaller ones have of one to one communication with the decision maker in the business) are not taking internal marketing/communications seriously enough. Do you really know how engaged your staff are, how many understand what the business is trying to achieve and what their role is in this? How many of your staff will be waking up on New Year’s Day with the new Year’s resolution of finding their next role?

Of course, communication is just one factor in the overall pay, benefits and wellbeing of employees, but how many employers would not want to reduce staff turnover?

5. More and more businesses will embrace integrated marketing

The choice of marketing routes and tactics can seem bewildering and most businesses will have a wide array of forms of marketing at their disposal – website, social media, direct mail, newsletters, email to name just a few. Used together in a structured planned manner focussing on particular campaigns, products and services, these can be incredibly powerful and significantly increase return on investment from marketing.

Radio, TV and Newspaper industry groups are quick to point out the multiplier effect on response when these are used together and they have a point. Whilst not literally true in every instance, there is an old marketing principle that the average person needs to see on average an advert seven times before they respond. In our fragmented media world and with the explosion of social media, this can be achieved much faster than before.

Challenge yourself, do you have a Marketing Plan  and are your planned activities as integrated as they could or should be?

In writing this blog, we set ourselves the constraint of focussing on what we think may be the biggest things to emerge when it comes to marketing in 2019. Many will have different views and certainly we see things like PR, content marketing, paid for social media activity and website page loading speeds also being a key focus (check out Googles nifty tool for checking this here). We hope though that at the very least we have prompted some debate, or given some food for thought. Of course if you need help with any of the areas that we have covered we would be delighted to hear from you – contact us here. Otherwise we wish you a Happy New Year and a successful 2019 – let’s make it a good one.

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Recruiting for your first Marketing person – some top tips

So you have decided that the time is right to recruit your first marketing person? Maybe the amount of marketing that your organisation undertakes has grown to a point where you consider you would be better off having a dedicated person. But you are not sure what to do next? Well here are our top tips on the steps that you need to take.

Firstly make sure that you budget for the other marketing costs that might be associated with that person and we are not referring here to HR costs like pensions or holiday pay. Whilst some forms of marketing do not involve expenditure, just effort and activity if you do not budget for some paid for activity (e.g. paid for social, Pay Per Click) you are unlikely to see your new person achieve their full potential.

Then decide what you want them to do. Obvious right? Well possibly, but you need to form these thoughts ideally into some form of job description that potential applicants can look at and determine whether it is something that interests them and matches their skill-set. One of the most common issues we see at this point is where businesses want to incorporate both marketing and sales tasks under the same role. There is nothing as such, to prevent you from doing this, but be aware that they require very different skill sets and finding both of these in one person can be very hard.

Next determine the level of person you think you need. Whilst you cannot now put the number of years’ experience required on discrimination grounds you need to have in your own mind the likely level of person you will be looking for, so that you can determine the salary that you will offer. People already in marketing roles will be able to determine the level of person you are looking for through a combination of the job role and the salary you offer.

Then you need to determine how you are going to recruit. The more senior the role, the more you are likely to benefit from using a recruitment agency that specialises in marketing (if you want recommendations on who you should consider in Gloucestershire please get in touch). Agencies have the advantage of a strong list of contacts and ability to reach people who are already in a role and not actively looking. For a more junior role you should be able to attract sufficient interest yourself. In Gloucestershire we are fortunate to have services like GlosJobs that can be very cost effective. Boosted Facebook posts can also be a highly cost effective means of generating interest and make sure you make the best possible use of your own social media, particularly Linkedin.

Once the applications flood in (hopefully – but be realistic there has been a shortage of good marketing people in recent years), the next task is to sift through applications to arrive at a shortlist for interview. We would usually suggest a minimum of 3-5 for this, as you can lose potential candidates along the process as they find other roles.

You then need to determine what the selection process is. This is usually one set of interviews or a first interview, followed by a second for a final one or two candidates. We would usually suggest asking candidates to sit some form of practical tests to gauge their abilities. Perhaps a writing task (draft a marketing letter), a proofreading task (with errors added in) and a task where they have to evaluate the results of a fictitious campaign. These tests are best done as part of the first interview, with the test being done first and then a break to allow marking – so that you can then discuss how the applicant found the tests. If you are having a second interview consider bringing in somebody different for the interview from your side to give you a fresh perspective.

At this point you need to try and reach a decision as soon as possible and make an offer. We would suggest not declining unsuccessful candidates until the preferred one has accepted, unless you are very confident that you would not consider them.

Once a candidate has accepted, try and keep in contact with the successful candidate whilst they are working their notice, to minimise the chance of them dropping out at this late stage. Also plan an induction programme for the first few weeks and think about what goals for the first few quarters and the first year you are going to set.

Simple isn’t it? If you think you might need help with this process, then get in touch as we can help with everything from writing job descriptions, shortlisting candidates, practical tests and interviews through to fast track induction and personal development plans.

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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 that by 2020, more than 1.3 billion home devices, 3.5 billion in-car devices, and 411 million wearable devices will be connected to the net. Customers will have access to social media everywhere they go, anytime and anywhere. Not just on their mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. But on smart devices that they can wear on them or use in the vehicles. If you’re not on or thinking about social media for your business, now is the time to get in check so you’re not left behind.

Bitesize videos for social media

People’s brains process images faster than text. Videos are the fastest, most efficient, and most enjoyable way for people to consume information, no longer than 60 seconds (which could be considered too long!). Create videos that can be watched and understood in silence as well as with audio, as not everyone will opt to watch the whole video, or click for sound.

When it comes to quality, the content of the video matters more than video quality or format.

Instagram

Why Use Instagram Stories?

If you’re already publishing photos and videos on Instagram, great. Adding Instagram stories to your content will help you get more visibility and provide more for viewers to consume.

When people open Instagram, the first things they see above their news feed are Instagram stories created by the accounts they follow.

Stories are up to 20 second long, or you can ‘go live’ which allows you up to 60 minutes. Boomerang videos are 5 second videos repeated on a loop with no sound.

Verified Instagram accounts (typically celeb accounts) and those with over 10,000 followers can add links to their video that allows viewers to ‘swipe up’ for more information, taking them to a specific webpage.

You can also add Location and #Hashtag stickers to your Instagram story. Both of which are ‘tappable’.  Great for brands promoting a specific location such as a local branch. It can also be good for directing viewers to a branded hashtag or one that you’re actively creating content for.

Two-Person Instagram Live Video: What you need to know

Not breaking news as this was announced last month, but Instagram has rolled out a feature that allows you to invite another person to your Instagram Live videos. To invite someone to join your video, they must be watching. At the moment you can only invite one guest at a time, however you can change the guest throughout the live feed.

Great for gathering opinions, feedback, knowledge sharing with colleagues, Q&As, product showcasing etc in a natural way.

Instagram polls: What you need to know

Launched a couple of months ago, you can now add a poll to your Instagram Story. Great for asking questions of followers and gathering opinions, real time. You can ask any question of your audience with 2 possible outcomes, up to 26 characters (for each option).

Just like an insta-story, the poll and its results will disappear after 24 hours. It’s important not  to overuse the poll function as you don’t want to dilute responses from your audience.

IN TEST: Instagram stories cross posting with Facebook stories

Instagram has begun testing the ability to push photos and videos created in Instagram to Facebook Stories and Insta-Stories simultaneously. This feature is expected to be rolled out outside of the US shortly. Annoyingly at the moment, it’s not planned to work in reverse, ie Facebook to Instagram.

NEW: Shopping on Instagram

Instagram is testing the ability for brands and retailers to sell products directly on the platform with deeper Shopify integration called Shopping on Instagram. More news soon.

Facebook

Making some sense of Facebook algorithms

You might be finding that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out on Facebook and be seen by the people you want to see your business updates. Consider this, the average Facebook user has more than 500 friends and likes 150 or more pages. Couple that with Facebooks complex algorithm… and it’s no wonder you may not be getting found.

Understanding the algorithm may help.

Engagement, engagement, engagement… The number-one factor when it comes to Facebook algorithms is engagement (likes, clicks, shares, check-ins and reviews). If the algorithm sees lots of people engaging with your post, then the algorithm will show the post to more people. Engagement is ranked: At the bottom of the pile is negative feedback (“hide this post, hide all posts, report, spam, unlike page”), followed by likes. The Holy Grail is shares, reviews and check-ins! This is where you should be focussing your efforts with Facebook. Facebook algorithms also give priority to video.

Facebook cover videos on your business page

We all know that consumers are engaging with video content, we mentioned it above. If you have a Facebook business page, you can add a video to your cover, which will stay right at the top of your Facebook page until you decide to change it. Currently, cover videos are only available on Facebook Pages and not private profiles, so worth making the best use of it now!

  • Facebook cover videos must be between 20 and 90 seconds long. If your video is less than 20 or more than 90 seconds, Facebook won’t allow you to use it as a cover video on your page.
  • The video resolution must be 1080p.
  • Videos will be cropped to 820 x 462 pixels, so keep any important images and text centralised so it doesn’t get cut off.
  • Cover videos autoplay on mute. Make sure your video makes sense with no sound.
  • Cover videosloop by default. Add a logo or title to make the transition smoother.

Facebook ad news

Facebook are planning to tighten restrictions on advertiser content, proof of authenticity, and industry-wide standards and best practices. Nothing has been rolled out as yet, but when it does, there will be tighter restrictions to follow when creating ads.

Facebook Messenger: Lite

Facebook is expanding the lightweight, stand-alone version of its Messenger app users in the U.S., UK, Ireland, and Canada.

Messenger Lite is data-saving and allows users to stay connected regardless of device or quality of internet connectivity. They are hoping this will encourage users to use the app rather than switching to SMS, iMessage, or Whatsapp.

Twitter

‘Save for later’ function

Twitter have announced plans to launch a new bookmarking tool that will save tweets for later reading. They haven’t said when this will be rolled out, but have said it will be ‘soon’.

Jenny Jervis – Marketing Consultant

You can find out more about the Social Media Marketing services that we offer here

 

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