Outsource Social Media?

Should I consider outsourcing our social media marketing?  This is a dilemma for small business owners as there be a temptation to try and do everything in-house and, in some instances, this can be a wise decision.  However, hiring experts to manage certain tasks can mean all the difference; knowing when to outsource can help reduce labour, increase efficiency, save time and money.

If you have a project requiring a high level of expertise, it would be time consuming for you to undertake this in-house meaning you’ll only put it off and the work will simply not get done.  By choosing to work with us, you can be assured that the project gets started quickly and is completed on time.

Small businesses outsource their social media marketing to us and we are in a position, having built solid relationships with other agencies over the years, to recommend various other aspects of digital marketing such as content marketing, website design, PR and graphic design, to these trusted agencies.  We keep up to date with changing marketing trends so our clients don’t have to, but bear in mind the following advice to make certain that outsourcing works for you:

Cost efficiency

One reason you might want to outsource is to reduce operational and labour costs while improving the bottom line.   This comes into question if your project is left in the wrong hands, so choose your expert carefully.

Your Business’ Reputation

It is vital that the highest possible standards are maintained when managing reputation; businesses live and die by their reputation.  Failing to take a business’ reputation into account when outsourcing may be the biggest mistake you could make.  Ensure your expert company has excellent processes in place; do not allow service levels to drop or your identity to be at risk.

Innovation

Internal constraints in businesses can stifle development projects.  For example, a software development company recently outsourced their marketing to us because internal team members were too close to the business to “think outside the box”.

Ultimately, outsourcing your areas of business to us means you can focus on what you should be doing: running and growing your business in the knowledge that your social media marketing activity is being expertly handled.

Take time to reap the rewards

Outsourcing is a key element for small businesses today and to dismiss it as an unnecessary function is short-sighted leaving companies at risk of being left behind by their competitors. Efficiency will be lost for those who attempt to manage all areas of their business in-house without external expert support.

Leave it to us!

We pride ourselves on getting to know our clients’ business’, their products, services and audiences, tailoring solutions to suit.

If you’d like advice or to talk through your current marketing plan and how we can help, please contact us or give me a call on 0161 826 7181 or connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss ways my team and I can support your business.  Alternatively, we have a whole host of complimentary fact sheets to help you on your own social media marketing journey, right here.

By Ann Davies, Director

Google My Business

The Importance of Google My Business

Having a solid presence in Google is key to a business’ success, not least because it is the most used search engine in the world.  In fact, as of December 2018, NetMarketShare reported that 73.62% of all searches were powered by Google.[1]

Considering this, how can businesses compete better in Google?

One way is to ensure that you have a detailed Google My Business listing set up which is a tool for businesses to create a presence for themselves in Google Maps.  When you search for a local service in Google, paid adverts are displayed at the top, 3 Maps results (Google My Business listings), known as the ‘Snack Pack,’ follow, and Google’s organic search results appear last.

Important Information to Include in a Google My Business Listing

1. Business name
2. Business type
3. Address/areas served
4. Opening Hours
5. Phone Number
6. Business Description
7. Google Reviews
8. Google Posts

What are Google Posts

Google posts can be used to promote your services and offers in Google.  They appear in your listing and last for 7 days, so it is important that you are making at least 1 post a week to make potential customers engage with your business.  In the example below, we have posted an explainer video and a link for people to book a web-demonstration of our customer reviews platform, but you can post about anything you like!

Local SEO Advantages with Google My Business

In November 2018, Moz published an article on the 2018 local search ranking factors survey which made clear that Google My Business signals account for 25.12% of your ranking in the Snack Pack which is a 32.14% increase from 2017.  Google reviews account for 15.44% and Google Posts account for 2.82% of your local Snack Pack ranking.[2]  Not only this, Google My Business signals, Google reviews, and Google Posts account for around 19% of your organic Google rankings so it is vital to a strong local SEO campaign.

Ensure that you fill in your business information in full, collect positive Google reviews, make regular posts about your work and offers because Google will reward you by returning your listing in the Snack Pack and in organic search more often than businesses with poorly filled out listings.  This increases the chances of people using your business when they are searching for a service or product that you offer locally.

BizWizUK partner with TRUSTist and not only do we use their services, we recommend them to our clients too!  We’re delighted that they have written a guest blog for January.  TRUSTist is the market leader in generating sales for “local” businesses, by optimising Google+ Local pages and generating a constant flow of high quality Ratings and Reviews on Google, resulting in greatly improved positions on Google Local Search results.

To find out how TRUSTist can help you with all of this and more, please feel free to book a free web-demonstration with me by following this link.

[1] https://moz.com/blog/2018-local-search-ranking-factors-survey

[2] https://netmarketshare.com/search-engine-market-share

LinkedIn Employee Brand Advocates

LinkedIn have recently launched their next generation of LinkedIn Company Pages which, they say, have been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier for companies like yours to adopt constructive conversations with LinkedIn’s community of more than 590 million members.  Click here to find out why these changes should matter to you.  Why should you encourage your employees to be brand advocates?

Your LinkedIn company page will often be among the first place where prospective clients will visit to learn more about your business.  Content has 2 x higher engagement when shared by employees and on average, your employees have a network that is 10 times larger than your company’s follower base.*

My team and I support companies as an outsourced service managing their LinkedIn marketing strategy.  If you manage your company’s LinkedIn company page strategy, here’s my top tips on how to encourage your LinkedIn employee brand advocates:

💡 Define your social media policy, explaining what is okay for your team to share and what is not okay. By offering some guidelines will help them feel more confident in sharing your aims and objectives.

💡 Do not assume your employees know how to use LinkedIn. Offer training as some will be more active and knowledgeable than others.

💡 Get everyone engaged by setting set up a LinkedIn engagement pod or a WhatsApp group.  We use WhatsApp and have seen this work extremely well.

💡 Encourage everyone by asking for news such as birthdays, work anniversaries, team news, projects they are working on, in fact anything which is relevant, including videos for those confident in doing so. Featuring employees giving an insight into your culture offers a look into the brand’s people and personality and LinkedIn pages are a great way to reflect this, especially if you are recruiting.

💡 Celebrate new business wins, client reviews, together with any PR coverage, any good news story alongside nicely designed, branded imagery.  Striking visuals are key to separating your page from your competitors.

💡 Position yourselves as a thought leader by posting useful content that positions your brand as an authority in its industry.

💡 Consistently monitor employee engagement for maximum effect. Ways you can do this are by identifying Company Page metrics, measuring success such as the number of employees participating, the reach of your messaging; shares, likes, comments, new followers and click-through-rates (CTR).

💡 I would also add that you may want to consider an incentive by offering a prize for team member of the month/quarter in terms of how much they have engaged.

💡 Evaluate what is working, what isn’t and make the necessary changes to improve. Any form of marketing should be treated with a ‘test and measure’ approach and feedback from your employees will also play a crucial role in your plan.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my tips for encouraging LinkedIn Employee Brand Advocates in your organisation.  If you would like to discuss your future social media requirements, bespoke to your company, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Ann Davies, Director

* https://www.LinkedIn.com

Christmas Social Media Ideas

It’s that time of the year again when we should have our Christmas marketing campaigns in place.  This time of the year especially can be a great opportunity to surprise and engage your audience, whilst at the same time generating more reach and visibility for your brand.

Have you got your seasonal marketing plan in place?  Here are my ideas:

End of Year Round-ups

End of the year round-ups are a great way to inform your audience of what’s been happening.  Gather figures, such as insights that are relevant.  For example, if you are in the financial services sector you might want to include how many people you’ve helped to get a mortgage, or how many first-time buyers you’ve helped to get on the property ladder in 2018.   You could also consider interviewing contacts in your industry who can offer predictions into the new year ahead.

We have many clients who really like this idea and it helps but them above their competitors in terms of creativity!  Think of how you can be informative or helpful with the content.

Leverage Video and Other Content

It’s not a secret that video marketing is a major trend to exploit. With 50% of consumers looking for a video of a product before visiting the online store* video is an extremely effective method of drawing the attention of your audience.

The content for your campaigns can include existing video or display ads, relevant posts that you’ve written for your blog, or campaigns that you are running on Twitter, Facebook or other channels. By putting these in front of a relevant audiences can significantly increase the value that your previous marketing investments deliver!

Get Behind a Local Charity

Another great way to create a seasonal social media campaign and give back to your community is to get behind a local charity that matters to your brand, your people and audience.  Ask a member of staff, or your boss, to dress up as Santa and visit a local charity to donate Christmas presents to children or instead of sending Christmas cards donate the money to charity!   There are some fantastic ideas here.

Create Social Media Only Offers

Make your audience more special at Christmas time and offer a social media only exclusive offer. This might be in the form of a discount, free delivery, free advice, a 3 for the price of 2 type offer, there’s lots of opportunities you could consider.

I don’t believe in making things complicated and your marketing campaigns don’t have to be either!  Here’s some extra ideas to keep in mind over this Christmas and New Year period:

• Design a special Christmas image which also resonates with your brand, change your social media profiles and header images to reflect your marketing campaign
• Pin posts to the top of your profile on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Company pages
• Create campaign specific hashtags that you can track. This will help you measure the performance of any marketing campaigns
• Don’t forget to include easy access in which your audience can share your campaign or special offer via your website
• Track your campaign results so you can improve future campaigns
• Use paid ads to increase your reach

Black Friday is around the corner and brands are gearing up for this infamous day and since its inception, social media has played a significant role.  Here’s your complete guide, courtesy of sproutsocial.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my social media marketing ideas for the Christmas season ahead, let the festivities begin!

If you’d like to chat about any of your future social media requirements, bespoke to your company, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Ann Davies, Director

* https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

Your Marketing Strategy for 2018

As we approach the end of the year and prepare for Christmas, we are also looking forward to the start of a brand new year.  In the fast paced environment of digital marketing, we can already predict many of the changes and trends that are likely to take place in 2018 and what related actions businesses should take maximise return on their marketing efforts.  Therefore, it is important that businesses start to look at their 2018 marketing strategy to ensure that they are ahead of the game and some elements to consider are as follows:

Keeping up

Live streaming is the new must for any Facebook for business user. Facebook are currently trialling their ‘Explore’ feature which, if rolled out to all users, will see Pages content be filtered into that space making way for Facebook to introduce it’s new video feature (which is said to be a big contender for the likes of Netflix and YouTube!). These new features mean that the organic reach that we have become accustomed to will soon be no more so it is more important than ever to use video, live streaming and paid advertising to get your brand noticed.

Type of content?

As above, the battle to be seen amongst the vast array of competitor content means that you have to make your own content stand out. Careful consideration should be given to the sort of content you’re posting together with its relevance. Your content should be a rich mixture of video, live streaming and infographics. Text heavy updates will simply not cut it in this evolving media-centric arena.  There are some great examples at SproutSocial.

Take advantage of new features 

Instagram Stories and live streaming are great features for business. Your story appears at the top of your followers’ feed as soon as they open the app and will play automatically after the previous story has finished. This means that your content can escape all the noise of the full feed and get more exposure. If a follower has notifications turned on they will be notified whenever you upload a video or go live – this is a great opportunity that should not be ignored!

Changing demographics

When considering your marketing plan you should take into account who your target audience is. Each new year sees a new cohort of university graduates, teenage consumers, and the ageing population means people of an older age who might not have been targeted previously, should now be included in any marketing strategy. Think about the varying understanding of technology, contact preferences and language that might best appeal to each demographic.

Which platform serves what purpose?

So we now know that Facebook is looking more towards video, Instagram photography and graphics and LinkedIn is still holding the fort for business related content; so where does Twitter fit in? Unless directly mentioned in a post, it is unlikely that followers will see your content. One successful strategy for Twitter is to use it as a customer services platform. Direct your customers to your Twitter to ask any questions about products and services or to give feedback. This can present challenges where complaints are concerned but as long as your appointed Twitter manager is friendly and helpful without sounding like an automated bot, using Twitter this way could be hugely successful for your brand.

Make sure you’re ahead of the game by using the above points to help inform your strategy. Should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can help write a bespoke plan that will ensure your brand is on top in 2018.

By Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager

Competitor Analysis

“Competitor analysis” – what is it?

A competitor analysis is an in depth look in to the competitors of a business to identify their strengths and weakness and any strategic opportunities.

Is a competitor analysis essential?

It should be a vital part of your company’s marketing plan. By undertaking a competitor analysis, you can benchmark your business, learn from your competitors’ strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses, establish the level of service your target audience expects, what they engage with the most and determine a niche to set your company apart.

It plays a key role in informing your overall strategy and setting out your business goals.

Investors and key stakeholders will be particularly interested in a competitor analysis; they want to know that you are both realistic about your positioning in the market and thinking strategically about what direction you need to be heading in to future proof your business.  Here is a useful article from Entrepreneur which also gives you an overview.

How do you do it?

Firstly, you need to know who your competitors are; a minimum of three competitors should be identified at local level and at least one at national level.

You should then determine where each holds an online presence across the various social media platforms. On each platform, you should note the number of followers, the kind of content posted, the level of interaction and whether it’s positive or negative, the level of humanisation (Do they sign off with a name or initials, do they address followers personally?), what tone they use, how often do they talk about themselves etc.

Once you gather the data you should plot it into a matrix and give each factor a score reflecting their attainment. From this, you will be able to identify who are the leaders in each area, what your target audience responds to the most, what everyone does well (bare minimum requirement) and what nobody does well (strategic opportunity).

To compete in the world of business you have to know your competitors!  For more information on our services please click here, call us on 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.

By Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager

Twitter is Changing!

Twitter announced yesterday that users can send tweets with as many as 280 characters, double the current limit.

“We saw when people needed to use more than 140 characters, they tweeted more easily and more often,” Aliza Rosen, a company product manager, wrote in a blog. “More space makes it easier for people to fit thoughts in a tweet, so they could say what they want to say, and send tweets faster than before.”

This latest roll-out includes all languages except Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Twitter said, “those Asian languages can convey about double the amount of information in one character compared with many other languages.”

Twitter started tests with a group of users in September and found that those with the extended character limit spent less time editing their tweets.   It was also found that those people got more followers, spent more time on the platform and interacted more with other users.  If you would like more detailed information about this research please click here.

What does this mean for your business?

Founded on that what we already know about this major update, here’s my thoughts on what it means for you:

• The most obvious benefit of having twice as many characters is that it allows for twice as much information to be shared. This could potentially reduce the number of tweets brands push out.
• A Twitter profile is nothing without good, relevant content, and creating good content takes time – even within the limit of 140 characters. Therefore, doubling the size actually doubles the workload, and this is something businesses need to consider carefully before getting too excited about how to fill 280 characters.
• Being able to express ourselves through a tweet with twice as many characters is all well and good but there could be a danger in less engagement as users scroll past more wordy tweets in favour or more digestible content.

Going forward our tip would be to try tweets with different character sizes see how it works for your brand.

Twitter hopes to attract more users, which means more engagement plus more potential for advertising.  Will it encourage those who defected to return?  In reality, no one really knows what this increased character limit might mean for Twitter and whether users truly want these changes!

I hope that you’ve found this update useful.  However, if you would like to discuss your future social media and general marketing plans, please contact me.

By Ann Davies, Director

How to create a plan!

A good marketing plan should define how you are going to market your products or services.  It should also include your aims and objectives and how you are going to implement them.

However, a marketing plancan be very wide-ranging and can include anything from a 10-year vision to how to increase sales in one product or service over the next two years.

With that in mind, here’s our guide to help you start your very own marketing plan.

What should your marketing plan achieve?

Your plan will rest on where you want your business to go and forms part of your overall business aims and here’s some examples of what these might be and strategies you could use:

• Increase sales
• Bring in new customers
• Get existing customers to buy more
• Introduce new products or services
• Further establish your brand
• Launch a PR campaign
• Retain existing profitable customers
• Offer existing customers exclusive offers

Here’s our step-by-step tips:

Research

Carry out detailed analysis of your company, your market, and your competitors.

Identify your target customers and segment them by splitting into groups such as existing and target customers.

Examine your products or services with the objective of how you are going to market them such as:

• USPs – what can your products or services offer than no other competitor can?
• Benefits – arising from determining your USPs what benefits your customer?

Finally, how you are going to communicate the benefits of buying your products or service to your target customers?

Whatever your marketing plan, you should write it down:

• Everything should be simple to understand, representative, and with a clear path of action
• Be ready to adapt your marketing strategy as and when necessary – there are an endless number of influences that could require a change.  Remember, it is flexibility that will keep you ahead of your competition.

We hope our tips have given you some ideas for your 2018 plan?  However, if you would like further information about how we can help support your future business plans, please contact us.

By Ann Davies, Director and Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager

Supporting The Hospitality Sector

The hospitality industry has continued to be disrupted by the increasing presence of social media and online forums. The power is no longer in the hands of the brand, but the customer.

So many businesses in the industry rely heavily on reputation and word of mouth recommendations, it’s and it’s as ever-present than ever before.

Your customers will help to support the reputation of your business; social media users will check in to your bar or restaurant.  They will share reviews on Facebook, share images of their food on Instagram whilst also tagging their location as your business. Now that these customers are your raving fans, they have also become part of your marketing strategy.

We’re delighted to have clients in the hospitality sector and here are my tips:

Consistency

Make sure your brand is consistent throughout all social media platforms. For example, use your brand logo throughout all profiles. Consider updating your cover photo with up-to-date promotions or events – it’s the first thing customers see when visiting your page.

Keep Updating

Social media pages that are never updated will definitely seem off-putting to potential customers. If you’re struggling, an easy way to maintain your accounts is to share your Instagram posts directly to your Twitter and Facebook feeds, that saves time!

Expand Your Reach

Ask your followers to like/share/re-tweet your message in return for a free meal, bar tab or night’s stay.  Perhaps you have a new autumn/winter menu, consider a competition to coincide with the new menu launch. As a result, you’ll see your brand reaching others who like to go to similar places to eat and drink.

Run an Event

Perhaps you an upcoming event, make a page for it on Facebook. People will express their interest, and this will then show up on the timelines of their friends who may not know about the event.

Don’t be put off by using social media for your business, it doesn’t have to be complicated.  However, it certainly is a necessity in the hospitality industry.

I hope you have found my tips useful.  Please contact me via my website or by telephone on 0161 826 7181 and I will be happy to discuss your future marketing requirements.  Alternatively, check out our client testimonials page.

By Ann Davies, Director

Tell Your Story Through Video

Nothing tells a story quite like video and as demand for video marketing continues to rise there is no doubt that companies are looking to use video.  Video should be part of a marketing strategy and companies know it and are starting to adopt this technology.

To quote NY Times, and USA Today Bestselling author, Lewis Howes,“Video can seem like just another challenge to overcome, but I see a major increase in my business and brand awareness, all from the power of video.”

Digital marketing is forever evolving and looking at new features such as YouTube cards and Facebook video, these have the ability to make your brand more engaging and accessible than ever before.  But, understanding the strategy is essential for your business.

Even LinkedIn has just started rolling out a native video feature for its timeline.  What does that mean? You can create video on the move from your mobile app (and soon desktop) and share it as an update.

So, you have clients and you have products, or services right?  Why not use video to get your message across:

Top tips

• Interviews – with either clients or staff; your audience is interested in hearing your story
• Customer testimonials – they are your raving fans, use video to prove it
• Demos and tutorials – showcase a new product or service and why not use the opportunity to link to a free trial
• Top tips – demonstrate your area of expertise by giving away free useful information whilst positioning yourself as an industry leader
• Animation – a fun and engaging way to promote a new product or service
• Staff video – “a day in the life of…” – always a great idea to humanise your brand and to help attract the right recruit

Look at available platforms to ensure that your content is on the right channels.  Not forgetting to optimise your video for SEO using keyword descriptions and tags and consider a landing page on your site where your video will sit.

The quality must be spot on.

More top tips

• Use a professional: a video of poor quality will not communicate your message well and risks putting off your target audience
• Be transparent and authentic: need we say any more?
• Don’t make your video too long or include jargon that your audience won’t understand
• Use social media: link your videos to Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn etc
• Create a script (but try not to read from it): considering the product or service you are providing. How can this help your audience?
• Include a clear call to action: for example, close with a question that can encourage a comment or question or let your audience know what step they should take after watching your video

Don’t think that just because your video is on YouTube views will magically appear.  You now need to create a marketing plan to determine the best possible reach.

We encourage our clients to experiment to find a fit that works for them.  Make no mistake, video marketing is one of the most powerful technologies that exist right now.  The fact that you can leverage visual storytelling to engage and connect with your audience is key.

We recommend Capture 1, experts in all aspects of video and animation production.  They can help you create a professional video to showcase your company.  Please contact me by email or by telephone on 0161 826 7181 and I will be happy to discuss your future marketing requirements.

By Ann Davies, Director