Inspiration

Part 1….

I’ve had my student hat on this last year learning everything marketing via The CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing). It’s been an interesting experience and almost the perfect time to be doing extra studies after spending a chunk of 2020 on furlough; giving me added time to get my teeth into this course.

I’ve been learning across three modules; the Application of Marketing, Planning Campaigns and most recently, Digital Marketing. With the latter, I thought it would be worth sharing with you some simple tips and techniques, to improve your digital marketing. Sometimes we even need the obvious things pointing out.

So, I want to make this EASY for you, and highlight a few changes which will improve:

• Your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): in simple terms- strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to your website.
• Engagement with your online content and products

1. Useful CONTENT for your customers

When I say content, this is anything you write for online use, it might be an email, a blog, social media, product descriptions, the list goes on. In general, the rule is to make sure the information you write is useful and has meaning to your audience, adding value to their experience from your communication channels. In other words, tell don’t sell!

When writing content:

• Start with NEED to know, moving down to NICE to know.
• Read it aloud, this will improve your writing style and grammar.
• Use simple terminology throughout (e.g. I should have just written; use simple words!)
• Use images and graphics wherever possible

Here are some further pointers to remember for each:

Emails

• Use images and videos
• Call to actions e.g. links to website, resources, social media, join newsletter, request account manager to get in touch
• Nothing too wordy

Blogs (I hope I’m doing these!)

• Keep the audience first priority- what will help them?
• Use subheadings
• Correct tone of voice. You’ll also find this makes the content more enjoyable to write too!
• Include useful links and tips

If you’ve not tried one before don’t stress, use one of these templates.

Social Media

• Focus on just one platform if you feel you don’t have the time
• It’s free, therefore worth making the time
• Remember the clue is in the name. It’s to be social and build relationships with your customers and stakeholders.
• Make sure your posts are useful to your audience. One good strategy to try and stick to is the 80:20 - 80% of your posts need to add value and 20% to promote. If you’re posting each day of the working week that’s only one post that should promote/sell a product. I know you can do the maths but it’s worth pointing out! e.g. our YouTube Channel is full of useful videos for our customers (you!). Feel free use links of videos from this channel on your posts.
• Use imagery or video with every post….TBC in hack 2!

If you’re interested in diving into social further, have a read of my last blog.

2. Create professional looking visual content.

As mentioned above, images and videos are important across ALL of your online content, everyone has a visual mind in some sense therefore these are imperative to get your message across.

You don’t need professional equipment to create professional looking content nowadays. Our smartphones can do everything we need. Before and after shots are very useful and speak for themselves in our industry, therefore it’s crucial to get them right.

This video our Creative Development Manager, Lol, filmed to help you when creating any imagery is very useful and worth a watch; How to take better before and after images on your mobile phone.

Along with those top tips you can use apps to help you create professional looking imagery, the best we’ve found are: Canva, Exposio and Photomatic.

Video! Apart from the obvious, a video can speak 1000 words (we’ve found this more than ever in the last year with Covid-19 forcing us to lean on video as a learning tool even more), there are jaw dropping statistics which back this up.

‘It is estimated that the average person will spend 100 minutes everyday watching online videos in 2021. This is a 19% increase compared to daily viewing minutes in 2019 even’. Dave Chaffey is a big name in digital marketing, read the rest of his interesting video marketing article here.

Remember inform, educate and engage!

Automation and creative tools obviously make your life easier, to improve your toolbox and get some inspiration refer to Smart Insights Toolbox! Where you can also download free digital marketing tools and plan formats which are easy to adapt to your business, no matter what your size!

3. Improve your website basics!

If you have a website I know it will be a struggle to keep information up to date due to times or limited resources, especially if you have a small team. If you try and focus on these website basics below then at least you know your website looks as professional and useful to your customers as possible.

• Ensure your contact details are correct
• Make sure your product and service information is up to date and relevant
• Keep images fresh – use point 2 to help!
• Try and keep content regular, Google likes new content and it will help improve your SEO. This doesn’t need to be anything too time consuming e.g. try new website banners, a quick News Story on a new product or some customer projects
• Make sure there are no broken links or page errors on your site

If you don’t have a website don’t worry. Plan for a mobile future, there are a lot of DIY website platforms out there now that can offer websites at a low cost (some are even free to develop and then they just charge you to host.)

They will all take into consideration best practice and help you build your SEO, making your life just as easy, plus it gets your products out there and starts to develop your brand identity.

You will then be able to provide integrated communications through your different channels e.g. links on your emails and social to your website. Try Wix and GoDaddy, these DIY sites mean that there’s still a level playing field for you compared to your competitors – remember, anything is achievable, especially in this new digital world.

*Final Website tip*

To optimise your page you will need an ‘SEO tool’ installed on your website. The most commonly used is Yoast which is FREE and works on most websites such as WordPress as a plugin. If your site isn’t compatible just type 'Yoast alternative' into Google.

Benefits:

• Enables you to add keywords or search terms
• Guide you through optimising your content for Google
• Steps to optimise structure e.g. title tag, meta tag, content page etc

Hacks 4, 5 and 6 to be continued in Part 2….

In the meantime, get going with your digital marketing and contact leanne@williamsmith.co.uk if you have any queries.

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