May 9, 2023

Firstly, what is it?

Data-driven marketing is the approach of optimising brand communications based on the customer information that you have. Data-driven marketers use customer data to predict their needs, pain points, desires and future behaviours. These insights help to develop personalised marketing strategies for the highest possible return on investment (ROI).

One of the first things you should do before embarking on any marketing/lead generation campaigns is to create a data strategy.

Why?

• To support data-driven decision making/Understanding your audience: A data strategy helps us make informed decisions based on data. By collecting, analysing, and interpreting data, marketers can better understand their target audience, their behavior, preferences, and buying patterns. This helps you create more effective marketing campaigns and personalise your messages to better resonate with your target audience. Did you know that 74% of customers feel frustrated by seeing irrelevant content from brands. 79% of them won’t consider an offer unless a brand personalises it to their previous interactions.
• To make informed decisions: With a data strategy in place, you can make informed decisions based on real data rather than just assumptions or intuition. This helps you allocate your marketing budget more effectively and target your efforts where they are likely to have the most impact.
• To improve ROI: A data strategy can help you optimise your marketing spend and improve their return on investment (ROI). By analysing data on campaign performance and customer behaviour, you  can identify which marketing channels and campaigns are most effective and allocate your budget accordingly. Businesses that use personalisation deliver 5x – 8x higher ROI from their marketing efforts.
• To optimise marketing campaigns: A data strategy can help you optimise your marketing campaigns by tracking key metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on investment. This data can help you identify what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to make adjustments and improve the performance of your campaigns over time.
• To keep up with the competition: In today’s digital age, data is a key competitive advantage staying ahead of your competitors and ensuring that your marketing efforts are effective and efficient is key.
• To make your audience feel important/Personalisation: This is a must for your marketing messages and offers. By collecting data on customer preferences and behavior, you can tailor your messages to better resonate with your target audience and improve engagement.
• To encourage the audience to take action:  With the right messaging, that is timely and relevant, your audience will take action rather than unsubscribing!

Why wouldn’t you want to better understand your customers, identify opportunities for growth, optimise marketing performance and stay ahead of the competition?

 March 1, 2023

I was looking for a restaurant last weekend and two made the cut! So, I decided to check them out on their social media channels.

Restaurant One had updated their Facebook and Instagram, so I knew they were still open and I could get a feel for the restaurant and see the food they served.

Restaurant Two hadn’t posted on their profiles since last July and even then it wasn’t consistent.

So, I chose the one who had been active, and I have to say it was lovely.

There are several reasons why a business needs to be visible:

• Attracting customers: Visibility is crucial for attracting customers to a business. If people don’t know that a business exists, they won’t be able to buy its products or services. By being visible, a business can attract potential customers and generate more revenue.

• Building brand awareness: Visibility helps to build brand awareness. A business that is visible is more likely to be recognised by potential customers, and they will be more likely to remember the brand in the future.

• Establishing credibility: Visibility also helps a business establish credibility in the marketplace. When a business is visible, it shows that it is active and engaged in its industry, which can lead to increased trust and respect from customers.

• Beating the competition: In today’s competitive business environment, visibility can be the key to beating the competition. A business that is visible is more likely to stand out from its competitors and attract customers away from them.

So, business owners need to show up and be visible as it’s essential for attracting customers, building brand awareness, establishing credibility, and beating the competition

 February 24, 2023

Podcasting has become so popular over the past few years, and don’t my clients know it!  Most of them have now joined the podcasting world.  To be honest they didn’t have much choice as I told them they needed to, and I only recommend activity that I know will bring results. 

Why has it gained such a large following?

Convenience: Podcasting allows listeners to consume content when they want, whether they are commuting to work, working out, or doing household chores. Unlike live radio or television, podcast episodes can be downloaded and listened to at any time, making them a highly convenient form of education.

Niche content: Podcasting allows you to produce highly targeted content for specific audiences. This means that listeners can find shows that cater to their specific interests and needs. With so many different genres and topics to choose from, there is a podcast for everyone.

Personal connection: Podcasts often feature hosts and guests who share personal stories and insights, creating a sense of connection between the listener and the content creator. This personal touch can make podcasts feel like conversations between friends and can help build a loyal following of listeners.

Lower barriers to entry: Starting a podcast has become increasingly easy and affordable, thanks to advancements in technology and the availability of free or low-cost hosting platforms. This means that more people than ever before can produce and share their own content, leading to a wider variety of voices and perspectives in the podcasting landscape.

But, how can Podcasting generate leads and create opportunities for your business or personal brand?

Building an audience: Podcasting allows you to reach a wide audience with your message and build a loyal following of listeners. By consistently producing high-quality content, you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche and gain the trust and respect of your listeners.

Guest interviews: Inviting guests to your podcast is a great way to expand your network and generate leads. When you interview experts in your field, you not only provide valuable content to your listeners, but also have the opportunity to connect with the guests’ followers and gain exposure to a wider audience.

Promoting products and services: Podcasting provides a platform for you to promote your own products and services. By including calls-to-action in your episodes and offering special deals to your listeners, you can encourage them to become customers and generate revenue for your business.

Sponsorship and advertising: Once you have built a significant audience for your podcast, you can monetise your show by attracting sponsors and advertisers. This can provide a steady stream of income and create opportunities for collaboration with other businesses in your industry.

Networking and collaborations: Podcasting can also help you build relationships with other podcasters, influencers, and thought leaders in your industry. By collaborating with others on joint episodes or cross-promoting each other’s shows, you can expand your reach and create new opportunities for growth.

So, podcasting is easy to set up, easy to produce and can be a powerful tool for generating leads, building an audience, and creating opportunities for your business or personal brand. By consistently producing high-quality content and engaging with your listeners, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority in your niche and open up new doors and opportunities.

Get in touch if you want to know more.

 April 26, 2021

With marketing having to constantly evolve, we have to find ways to give prospects the information they need to help them make an informed decision.  People do not want to be sold to, or at least not in the way they used to.  Gone are the days of heavy sales pitches and collateral.

This is why customer testimonials are so important. Instead of “taking your word” that your product or service is going to impact their lives positively, it lets people hear from real customers why the decision they’re about to make is a good one.

An essential goal of your marketing should involve building as much trust and credibility as you can.  Your customers don’t just want to hear that you can solve their problem from you – they want to hear it from people that have bought or worked with you.  So, customer testimonials are incredibly effective.

Testimonials help create a deeper, more emotional appeal for your brand.

Did you know that:

• 92% of people read testimonials when considering a purchase
• 82% of consumers said that they trusted reviews just as much as personal recommendations
• 72% of respondants to a survey said that positive reviews and testimonials helped them trust a business significantly more

If a customer has a positive experience, encourage them to leave a positive review or testimonial. Consumers naturally trust each other more than they trust your marketing messages, so a testimonial adds more weight to the decision they’re trying to make. Those happy customers, encourage more purchases, which creates more happy customers.

When you combine customer testimonials with other effective marketing techniques, suddenly your message is being amplified in the best possible way.

You’re giving an opportunity to let regular customers become brand advocates, which does more in terms of building trust, credibility, and emotion than you could ever do on your own.

You’re also creating more brand advocates in the process, which is always a good thing.

Do you have a testimonial program in place?  My clients do 🙂

 November 10, 2020

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as: ‘…a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action’.

This week my guest blog is written by Hayley Meakes.

Hayley is an experienced brand and marketing specialist, writer, entrepreneur, public speaker and trainer.

Hayley prefers the following two definitions of what content marketing is about and what it delivers:

Andrew Davis, marketing speaker and bestselling author:

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.”

Laura Fitton:

“Focus on the core problem your business solves and put out lots of content and enthusiasm and ideas about how to solve that problem.”

Depending on your sector, it might seem that everyone is putting out content, but are they doing it effectively? Here are Hayley’s 8 tips for getting started on and/or improving your content marketing:

1. Align your content with your personal brand or organisational goals – You should consider what you are trying to accomplish and how this fits in with your goals. Knowing your goals helps you to pre-determine your content marketing plan. Your goals should be measurable and have a date by which they should be accomplished i.e. Increase followers on Instagram by 30% by 31 December 2020 or build your list to XXXX by March 2021.
2. Know your audience – Have a clear idea of who you’re talking to and create key customer profiles or avatars. These profiles should include age, gender, location, benefits/pain points, what they read, what social channels they use etc. Give your avatars a name and make them real people with specific wants and needs. The more detailed and personal you make the profile, the easier you will find it to create content that will appeal to these people. It will also ensure that you’re targeting the right people with the right message in the right format.
3. Define and develop your key messages – Consider what your audience want/need to hear? Be clear on what makes you and your product or service unique in the marketplace, what you stand for and against as well as what you need to achieve the goals you have set. In terms of quantity, consider including one to three headline messages, with sub-points for more detail.
4. Know your content marketing strategy and pull together your content – Content marketing strategies fall into three categories: long-form, short-form and conversations. Long-form is anything that is longer than a Tweet (2-3 sentences) and could be a whitepaper, blog post etc. Short-form includes social media updates and graphics. Conversations and sharing includes participating in and driving conversations through blog commenting, link sharing and comments on videos. You can use one type or all three is better. The next step is to develop the content you are going to use. It needs to be unique and different. Include your key messages into the content without purely pushing your product. Content can be evergreen or topical. Evergreen content can be used at any point in time as it’s always relevant, whereas topical content could be news jacking – i.e. piggybacking on an article in the press or something that is happening in the wider world relevant to you and your business.
5. Create a content planner – Developing a plan is key, but it should be flexible to allow for all eventualities. The plan should include strategies, specific tactics, suggested headlines, content deadlines and who’s responsible for what. It might also include themes, you could have a day for case studies, a day for product benefits, a day for newsjacking etc. This allows you to plan your content in advance.
6. Establish Relationships – Next, you need to get out there and start building relationships with your potential prospects. You can do this by joining existing communities and commenting and sharing their content initially, whilst you start building your own groups across the social media platforms you plan to utilise. Remember: you are there to add value not just promote yourself and your business – as a rough gauge, we’d suggest you follow Pareto’s principle and have 20% self-curated content and 80% commenting and sharing others in your niche.
7. Spread the Word – Search engine optimisation (SEO) can help if you know your stuff. For example, any tags you’re adding to your blog posts should be used to generate traffic, as this helps you to be found i.e. consider what words your target audience would be searching for is. Are they location-based or subject-based i.e. plumbers in Enfield, mortgage brokers for commercial property in Liverpool?
8. Measure Effectiveness and Review – Measuring the effectiveness of your content, will ensure that you stay on top of your plan and will determine if it needs to be altered, or whether it’s delivering the results you are looking for. Measurement can include, page views, retweets, likes, shares etc. Review what is and isn’t working and adjust your content planner accordingly.

The truth is anyone can be successful at content marketing if they know their message, market and channel. The key thing is to be consistent, it’s better to post regularly and less frequently than five times one week and then nothing for a month. You can now be your own publishing house and all you need is time and a little know-how to be successful.

You can read more of Hayley’s blogs on Business, Marketing & Mindset here 

 July 23, 2020

Have you checked your SSI score on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index) is a measure of how strong your personal brand is – in terms of the quality of your connections, your interactions and engagement in conversations, and the strength of your professional profile

LinkedIn claims that those who achieve 70 or higher, see 45{75f288e9ca768cce955a9bb5791c151328b004b83ccd83e596fac878249828cc} more opportunities and are 51{75f288e9ca768cce955a9bb5791c151328b004b83ccd83e596fac878249828cc} more likely to hit sales targets.

It awards a maximum of 25 points for each of these ‘pillars’:

✅ Establishing your professional brand

This means filling out your profile sections – photo, headline, summary and experience. Increasing your endorsements, and sharing high quality, helpful and relevant content.

✅ Finding the right people

You need to carry out advanced people searches regularly to find the right people. Also view people’s profiles to show due diligence rather just searching, connecting and messaging.

Try and look at who’s viewed your profile. These are warm prospects, don’t ignore them. Also, something I recently found out – LinkedIn looks at your number of active days.

✅ Engaging with insights

LinkedIn will look at how many likes, comments and shares that you give. It also looks at what you receive.

Reposting other peoples content is key. And, what most do not do – join groups.

And, something else I recently found out…your inMail or connection request response rate.

✅ Building relationships

How many connections do you have? And, what level those connections are. The higher the level the better. Have you connected with members of your team/organisation?

LinkedIn will also look to see the acceptance rate for connection requests.

What’s your score?

Take a look here:

I’d love to see yours.

 July 15, 2020

So, we know that LinkedIn algorithm favours those who engage.

If you like or comment on other people’s posts, they are then more likely to see your future content. The algorithm is more likely to send your content into their feed. LinkedIn will assume that you know each other and that your content is also relevant and interesting to them. If you do not engage in people’s content, they are unlikely to see yours.  You could have high-quality content, but this does not matter if nobody sees it.

If I am busy with client work and do not spend much time on LinkedIn browsing content and engaging, I notice that there is a reduction in my reach. Fewer people see my posts. If I spend time commenting and liking a lot more content, it will return to previous levels.

As well as putting your content out to more people, commenting helps to builds your reputation as a thought-leader, and more people will connect with you, find you credible, and start to trust you. This will help you to start building a community around your personal brand.  LinkedIn is full of people like you who want to connect and use LinkedIn for mutual benefit, but you have to have conversations. It is SOCIAL media.

Also, it might seem obvious, but reply to people who comment on your post sotherwise they may not comment again.

For the first time, we are having to lead with empathy, and start to understand and adapt to evolving customer wants and needs.  This has become the new competitive advantage.  The brands that get this right will recover post-COVID.

Brands are looking to emerge from the past 4 months and continue to do business. Moving forward, the approach will need to show that they know who they are, they understand customer concerns and their desires, and are adaptable while helping to build relationships. It will be humanity that helps us re-engage with the world when we get through this fully.

Customer behaviour isn’t what it used to be.  People are behaving in ways we never could have predicted and this is not going to change anytime soon.  Brands are now faced with this challenge and must re-learn who their customer is and what they care about at this moment in time. To do this, they must connect directly to real customers and listen to them to understand how to adapt on a regular basis.  No decisions should be made on ‘what could work well’, as it is more important than ever to regain customer loyalty.

Customer insight and research is paramount into developing a new or adapted strategy during this fast-paced and ever-changing situation.  Customer empathy must be brought into the marketing strategy.

By understanding your customer’s feelings and desires, you’ll be confident in launching new marketing campaigns that will be received well and get you back on the road to business success.

 July 10, 2020

Have you thought about encouraging your team to share your posts to expand your reach and engagement with customers and prospects on LinkedIn?

 June 30, 2020

On an average 500 million people watch Instagram Stories a day. So, with Facebook as a brand succeeding at bringing in new audiences to their platforms with stories, have LinkedIn decided that this could be an option for them too?

With stories currently being tested internally, the question for me is – will LinkedIn be able to put a professional twist on the 24-hour story format?  LinkedIn users still want a professional platform to build relationships, they don’t want to necessarily see the content that is normally posted on Instagram and Facebook stories.

The aim will obviously be to encourage conversations and make it easier to communicate, but in a more fun and lighthearted way.   With stories only being visible for 24 hrs, LinkedIn say that social media users prefer to ‘share in the moment’ rather than committing to a permanent feed post.

This has been proved by Instagram with users posting less on their feeds, but creating more stories.

So, what does this mean for you?

This new feature will provide a new, temporary way for you to share information with your professional audience. And, although having another ‘thing’ to contend with might feel overwhelming, there are lots of ways to turn this into a new creative opportunity to support your business goals.

Much like the introduction of Instagram stories, LinkedIn stories will offer a huge opportunity to create stronger, more personable conversations with your audience.

But, you still need to build a content strategy. You still have to consider who your audience are, who you are talking to and why you want to capture their attention.

Understanding the audience you’re talking to, what they are interested in, and what you want to achieve will help to shape your content strategy and keep you on track.

LinkedIn is a huge platform for professional thought leadership, and this new ‘bite-sized’ format is a great way to showcase your knowledge in a fun and engaging way and to gain your audience’s attention.

The stories will only have a short lifespan, which makes them perfect for sharing less polished, off-the-cuff content, as long as it fits in with your strategy.

Just like Instagram stories, it will provide a great way to show a more human and authentic side to your brand on social.

If you’re one of the first few to be using LinkedIn stories, the chances are you’ll be gaining a huge amount of extra airtime with your audience on LinkedIn. Early adopters will set themselves ahead of the competition.

So, will you be using LinkedIn stories?