In this article, we can show you how we create some of our best email newsletters and the process behind them. This blog post will be an organised explanation of how you can grow your business through email newsletters and the services we provide in order to help you do so.
Email newsletters are a great way to advertise and showcase your company’s successes and services while keeping customers updated on any improvements and changes within the company. Nearly 5 Billion people worldwide use email, according to mailChimps blog post on writing email newsletters. Weekly emailing can raise your chances of reaching a higher percentage of these people each week. Whether you want to advertise a new product, service or event, email marketing/newsletters can be an easy and effective way to capture customers’ attention and drive more traffic to your website. Therefore resulting in more sales or higher interaction with your customers.
Keyword research is a practice that professionals in marketing use to use terms, phrases and words that users might enter into a search engine to find information on a particular topic, subject or object. Using words specific to your topic or product within your email newsletters can optimise traffic and reliability, ensuring that people feel you are a source they can trust when looking into a particular topic. Audience research and keyword research is a great ways to kickstart your email newsletter; they can allow you to adapt and change your email newsletter to your specific audience. Ensuring you get the reactions you are hoping for.
The subject line of your email is what is going to be the part that draws attention to your email and catches the attention of your audience. This will be the first aspect of your advertisement that your audience sees. Therefore you will want to ensure you fill it with keywords, and relative content and present it in an inviting manner to ensure it grab their attention. Make sure you include the information of the sender and recipient of the email, the date and any other vital information surrounding the content of the email.
Creating a good header and introduction is vital when grabbing the attention of your audience and getting them to stay interested throughout. During your audience research, you will discover how long your clients spend reading an email and gauge how much time people have to spend reading email marketing. If people have busy schedules that involve a lot of email traffic, then you will want to keep your advertisement short but effective. You can do this by ensuring your header is clear and concise and include all vital information quickly in your introduction. Images and infographics can also be a good way of engaging people while also delivering information quickly.
To ensure that your content is going to be useful and effective, you need to ensure you follow some simple steps.
One of the most important things is to create an email that isn’t overloaded with text and information. When advertising a product, service or event, people can get carried away with wanting to give all the information in a dense and lengthy email. People want to have content that is easy to digest, simple to read and full of the necessary information. Try not to go overboard with text unless the information you are writing is vital for your clients.
You can use infographics and images to help show key information in a clear and concise way.
There is no point in making an advertising email newsletter about an event, product or service that was relevant two weeks ago or is happening the day after they receive the email. You want to ensure that your audience has time to react to the information they have been given. Whether it’s a product you want them to buy, an event you want them to be a part of or a service you provide, you want people to have enough time to purchase, sign up, ask questions or react to your email.
There are some useful methods that you can find on our email marketing page, that show you how you can personalise your email newsletters in order to be sent to specific groups of people. You want the right advertisement to be received by people who are most likely to interact with that content. This links back to audience research/ keyword research and ensures you know what your audience is looking for.
Make sure that the tone of your email newsletter matches the tone of your current website/ online presence and service you provide. Someone advertising days out at a waterpark aren’t going to have the same tone and use the same language as someone advertising Luxury spa days or luxury wine. Know your audience and create a tone that they will understand. Ensure not to use phrases and words that your audience may have trouble understanding while also ensuring to be polite and pleasant with the way you communicate with people.
Imagery and the layout of your content can be one of the first things that grab your audience’s attention. You can also create content that incorporates important information to make sure your customers can clearly find key information they might need.
Following these steps when creating content can help you get more out of your content and email newsletters overall. Email newsletters are one of the best ways of reaching audiences all over the world. Ensuring that the content you provide is well-designed, personal, relevant, not over complicated and has the right tone can help you get the best results.
Here at Fanatic, we offer Email Marketing services that include creating engaging, eye-catching written and visual content, and bespoke email flows and we can also analyse email performance to ensure we are doing all we can to optimise your email Newsletter campaigns. For more information, please refer to our email marketing and email newsletters here. Feel free to get in touch to see how we can help you with the services we provide.
Paid Social is when companies and brands display sponsored advertising content on third-party platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, targeting audiences that match their brand. Marketing professionals use Paid Social strategies to increase traffic to their website or content, improve or increase marketing efficiency and market to larger audiences to capture new subsets of customers.
After the 2021 pandemic, social media saw a considerable rise in users, and people spent more time online than ever before. As a result, people’s activity on platforms such as e-commerce websites and social media stores increased, allowing companies to target audiences more precisely to match their brand. Through Paid Social, companies can post ads to audiences with a higher chance of the users interacting with the content.
The amount of companies using Paid Social in 2022 has dramatically increased due to the increased global engagement with social media. According to Search Discovery, this number is set to grow even more by 2025 to 4.4 billion users. People also spend much longer on social media platforms, averaging 147 minutes daily for the average person.
Social media strategies have become much more streamlined, and eCommerce websites are becoming one of the most accessible platforms for consumers to purchase products and services. In addition, the ease and simplicity of buying and consuming content through social media has enabled companies to generate traffic and sales much more efficiently. For example, through Paid Social, companies can streamline their advertisement to be seen by more specific audiences who are more likely to interact with the ads—leading to further sales.
Privacy and user safety have moved to the forefront of significant changes in how companies use Paid Social. According to a recent article by Clicky, after Apple updated IOS15 in September, 80% of global respondents chose not to be tracked. Companies will have to look into how they target audiences and how they can make their Paid Social campaigns more effective, reflective of the updated statistics.
Being diverse and authentic has become crucial to running successful ads. According to the same article by Clicky, 75% of Gen Z are more likely to support and use brands that are authentic in the way they advertise products. Companies must use original methods that reflect their message, story, values and overall products to attract their desired audiences. Paid Social can allow companies to do this on a larger scale, targeting audiences more likely to interact with their content. Companies that are more diverse in their advertisement will also see greater impressions and reactions. Diversity in the platforms companies use will also significantly impact the responses they receive to content. Companies that are also diverse in how many social platforms they use for their Paid Social ads could triple their audience reach and subsequently generate higher impression rates and CTR. TikTok is becoming one of the most powerful platforms for marketing, with over 1 billion users each day; utilising new media is a crucial way of reinventing Paid Social strategies and getting the most out of campaigns.
Short video content has dramatically impacted how we market and advertise products throughout 2022. Going into 2023, this remains the same. The increase in users on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram has seen many ways people use short 1, minute videos to create effective and engaging content while also allowing companies to interact with influencers within their subject audience.
According to Hootsuite, users of TikTok spend 95 minutes a day on the platform, and 78.6% of users use TikTok to find entertainment, making it one of the leading platforms for Paid Social. In addition, according to Hootsuite again, Google Trends’ interest in the platform has increased by 1,125% since 2020, meaning you will likely start to generate the most impact on TikTok going into 2023.
Influencers and the rise of Influencer culture on many social media platforms have created a unique and powerful influence on Paid Social and advertising on social domains. Despite being around for many years, the amount of organic user-generated content creators has increased rapidly throughout 2022, especially on social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where short video and review video logs, or ‘Vlogs’, are used daily.
According to an article for fbcomms, new social media platforms such as BeReal are set to emerge even more and become more prominent in 2023, hoping to break through into the heavily populated market. However, they pointed out that many new social media platforms tend to be niche sites with limited impact. However, utilising the trends produced by these platforms is useful when considering the design and storyline of companies’ advertising.
We live in a world with a far shorter attention span than generations before. Short videos, animations and interactive aspects of content can be a great way to get and secure audiences’ attention and get them to interact faster. Platform algorithms are introducing new ways in which content creators and brands can create two-way dialogues with their audience, rewarding those who produce successful content. For example, Instagram allows viewers to like, comment, share, and add stickers to social posts and stories. Aspects like this are a great way of building and maintaining relationships with followers. It gives audiences more say and enables brands to edit and shape advertisements to get the best results.
Since 2020, after the pandemic, we have been talking about the increase of people shopping online compared to the number of people who shop in physical stores. According to fbcomms, people will likely not have to leave their social platform to shop for goods and products advertised through posts. Through media such as Instagram and Facebook, customers will be provided with an even faster route to purchase products without going to another website or a different platform. Ensuring companies keep up to date with the ever-changing world of eCommerce is essential to running successful online businesses and creating an impactful online presence.
Paid Social is a fun, creative and highly effective method of finding potential customers and is considered by some to be one of the most effective ways of marketing in the current social image climate. Paid Social allows brands to connect with a target audience specific to their brand and gain a more extensive reach through the size of the platform. Focusing on diversity, interactivity, video and animated content, and eCommerce performance will help brands get the most out of their advertising going into 2023 and how Fanatic can help you.
Our Paid Social and Digital Marketing experts will consider your audience, competitors and existing online presence and branding to create a Paid Social campaign that is sure to get impressive results. Get in touch today and find out how we can help you on your Paid Social journey.
Last month the team worked on several exciting projects making updates to the product pages for Effect Doctors, finalising a project they have been working on with DAZN, and creating a new and improved website for them. Stathis and Ian also visited the Somerset and London venues for Artfarm, taking time to walk around their lovely Piet Oudolf-designed garden and re-visit Mount St Resturant.
After a productive brand presentation for a new seafood restaurant, we enjoyed a lovely cocktail with our clients from Aqua Shard, Micah and Marie. We also welcomed Mary to our Digital Marketing team this month! You can see how she’s getting on further down!
This month one of our largest website projects has gone live. The website is for DAZN, a market-leading sports broadcaster in Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Japan and Taiwan but is known largely for its boxing proposition in the UK.
We built the new corporate site for the DAZN, which communicates how they have brought a new way of watching live sports such as boxing, formula one and football to viewers.
It was important that this website communicates the multi-threaded nature of today’s viewers, who want to simultaneously consume sports across multiple devices. They view and interact with the platform through multi-game/sports views or in-game bets. This is a fast-moving space, and the corporate site is there to communicate how DAZN are changing the face of sports streaming.
It was great to work closely with the in-house brand team, as well as the DAZN management, to bring together a website design that not only hits the right message but in the right tone and with the right energy for this fast-paced brand.
Naturally, the site uses a lot of videos and features a lot of movement as the visitor scrolls down the page. The site has also been challenging for our developers, who love something new to challenge them to bring a more conceptual design to all browsers and devices.
In January, we made some improvements to the product pages on a long-standing client’s website, Effectdoctors.com. The product pages were several years old and had been updated many times as A|B tests and UX updates mean a busy eCommerce site is consistently being evolved. There’s only so far a page that can be modified both in terms of keeping a clean UX and for the cleanliness of code behind the scenes, so a fresh build is required occasionally. After using the previous product pages for a few years, they were overwhelmed with many added features and content over time, affecting their user experience.
We reevaluated which features were essential and created a plan to simplify the content of these products while maintaining depth and detailed descriptions of each product. These changes and adaptations to the product pages resulted in a much simpler-to-use WooCommerce management experience and a much clearer User Experience for their customers.
We have been steadily expanding our work with Artfarm’s Somerset venues over the last year or so. Last month, during a visit to the venues, we took time to slow down and walk around their on-site, including the pleasure of taking in the artwork in the Hauser and Wirth gallery, a walk in their Piet Oudolf-designed garden featuring artworks such as the sculpture by Smiljan Radić, that was previously located at the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
We then had our regular meeting with our Artfarm clients over lunch in their Roth Bar and Grill, looking at design work for various projects before visiting their farm shop, for which we run eCommerce marketing campaigns.
We were also able to indulge in a fondue hat! YUM!
It was an excellent way for us here at Fanatic to become more immersed in how all the venues fit together within the Artfarm location, an essential element when creating content and expressing the brand through our multiple marketing campaigns.
We also re-visited the Mount St. restaurant in Mayfair, which we visited in the summer of 2022 as a building site. The finished Audley Pub, Mount St. Restaurant and connected private dining rooms are one of the finest examples of exquisite dining venues we have seen in over 20 years worth promoting F&B venues, with the Art engrained in the very fabric of everything we see and touch!
We currently run and manage multiple digital channels to drive bookings for the venue and love working on projects for Mount St. restaurant.
This month, there have been several updates from the world of Digital Marketing. Microsoft Bing launches ChatGPT, the EU rules that Meta’s ad practices are illegal, Google agrees to pay up in a 12-year-long lawsuit, and Apple ads network could bring new opportunities to marketers worldwide. Meanwhile, Google optimise is set to be removed this year, and Twitter is rolling out keyword ads to advertisers. More details can be found in this article.
Microsoft Bing with ChatGPT reportedly launching in March 2023
Bing has announced the integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT Chatbot technology, enabling the site to answer search queries with complete sentences rather than just suggesting links and generic search results. Expected to launch towards the end of March 2023, it is intended to give Microsoft that significant edge over Google. It is creating a new level of rivalry between the two search platforms.
Microsoft already has a partnership with OpenAI. Microsoft already utilises Open AIs technology through OpenAI’s cloud services in tools that let users create text, code and imagery using instructions and learning models using internet data.
Microsoft has reportedly drawn a lot of attention to the platform within the tech community, specifically, after they announced that Microsoft was in talks to make a second, tens of billion-dollar investment in the AI business back in October 2022. Although it needs to be clarified whether the current version of GPT will power the service, Microsoft continues to collaborate with OpenAI on ways to integrate GPT into Bing with hopes of improving its user experience.
After Microsoft announced that it supports Open AI’s ChatGPT in BIng and edge browsers, Google retaliated by revealing its language model called “Brad”. However, it didn’t quite go to plan for Google as the AI chatbot gave incorrect answers during live demonstrations. The Bing ChatGPT is not available for everyone yet, and users must join a waiting list to join to use the tool.
You can try it out using the link here: https://www.bing.com/new
After seeing a 10x increase in Microsoft app downloads (according to data.ai.), could this be the beginning of the end for Google’s dominance over the search engine landscape and the start of Microsoft’s takeover?
The European Union ruling could change the faces of Facebook and Instagram’s ad business. After the EU regulators found that Meta had illegally forced users to accept personalised ads, Meta was fined 390 Million Euros.
Meta was fined for using language within their terms of service that implied that users must allow their data to be used for the personalisation of ads or stop using the platforms altogether; users were left with no choice but to accept the terms to continue using the service. Meta has been given three months to outline how it will comply with the ruling. This could result in Meta allowing users to choose whether they want their data to be used for targeted ads; this puts Meta’s ad revenue at risk, putting about 5-7% of it at stake.
People advertising within the EU could be affected. Still, the changes Meta may have to make will potentially impact users in the United States as well, as many companies apply E.U. rules globally because it limits them from being affected within Europe.
Consumers that say Google shared their queries with third parties without permission have finally ended a 12-year-long class action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Google went against the Stored Communications Act, which governs access to records held by internet services in California.
The Customers affected will receive a $23 million payout, which is still under court consideration. Google must also provide added disclosures to consumers about sharing search terms. Privacy has become critical when running a website/ online business. With companies unsure how this will affect the future of advertising, privacy issues are still a hot topic.
You can read the settlement details here to learn more about the case.
Apple is again making waves, but this time it is its ad network getting attention. Apple is now placing greater emphasis on prioritising its services category over its consumer products, focusing on aspects such as search ads and App Store.
Google and other major brands at the top of the search market, such as Amazon, are usually the first places people go; however, these brands have been under severe scrutiny lately from the government and consumers. Google has been dealing with antitrust battles in Europe and the U.S. and the hefty fines accompanying the rulings. Amazon has also suffered lousy press recently with a $1 billion antitrust case in the UK and false advertising surrounding Prime Day.
With both its main competitors under scrutiny, Apple has the opportunity to work its way up the search market. Andrew Lipsman from Insider Intelligence stated, “I can easily imagine a scenario in which Apple grabs 10% of Google’s nearly $150 billion search ad business, which would translate to a $15 billion opportunity”.
Despite this, Apple filed a new class action lawsuit against itself back in November 2022, claiming that it continued to track users even after disabling tracking in device settings. This
led to the case stating that Apple’s promises about their privacy settings were untrustworthy.
Apple has now stated that its goal is to triple its advertising revenue and has already made some significant steps in the right direction, paving its way with diversified revenue streams. However, Apple’s privacy settings and measurement efforts will continue to affect consumers and marketers.
From the 30th of September, 2023, Google Optimize and Optimize 360 won’t be available to run user experiments and personalisations; however, the ones users have set up already will continue to run until that date. These changes may affect marketers’ ability to conduct A/B testing and optimise their website or app’s user experience.
Google has decided to do this to better serve users by investing in solutions that give customers access to more robust and trustworthy A/B testing capabilities. They made a statement that they want to focus on ways that can improve users’ experience and through improving tools through Google Analytics 4. At the moment, it’s unclear whether this means that Google Optimize’s A/B testing facilities will eventually be available in GA4.
In news from the world of social media marketing, Twitter has introduced a new ad unit called “Search Keywords Ads”, where advertisers can promote sponsored tweets in search results. Giving them the ability to reach further audiences, they can now pay for their tweets to be shown further up the search results page for specific keywords.
This update is similar to the promoted tweets that appear in users’ timelines but allows them to appear in search results. The new update is there to drive conversions to advertisers’ websites, and if users use Twitter Pixel or Conversion API on their websites, it can also maximise their relevance.
Reports have shown that ad spending on Twitter dropped by 71% in December 2022, mainly due to the top advertiser’s reduced spending on social media after Elon Musk took over. The company believes that this update will reinvigorate its ad revenue stream.
Crisis management is something that many businesses hope to never have to implement, but it’s incredibly vital to have it prepared. With the rise of influencer marketing in recent years, it’s worth considering whether to integrate this into your pr in crisis management strategies.
Successful influencer marketing can help to restore your brand’s credibility, reputation and trust with the consumer. In fact, 61% of people are likely to trust recommendations from friends, families or influencers, which shows the power of this type of marketing.
You’ll need to have a good grasp of your audience, including who they are most likely to trust. From here, you’ll be able to research who can best represent your brand in your time of need. This all needs to be carefully considered; choosing someone who is potentially linked to any current or upcoming controversy could have serious repercussions for your brand.
Remember, influencer marketing and PR can help the situation, however, if done poorly, it could actually make it worse. It’s also vital to be selective with the opportunities and channels you select to promote these campaigns for the same reason as the wrong decision could blow up in your face.
We tend to think of crisis management as a fire. Imagine that you have a flame in front of you – you can either contain it to stop it from spreading or sit back and hope that it doesn’t get to that point. In the same way, it may not be necessary for them to respond to the controversy, however, your influencers will still need to be briefed.
Once they have been contacted and are on board with your strategy, it’s important to ensure that any connected parties are involved in your plan and so it’s worth crafting an in-depth response document so that they are prepped for any difficult questions or comments. If done correctly, it can be a vehicle to connect with your customers in a brand-new way.
Even once any controversy has passed, there’s still a chance that traces, such as articles, videos and responses, will be visible online. This is particularly inconvenient on social media and in Google’s search results, where results could be there forever. However, working with influencers allows you to populate your channels and search results with positive stories that win your customers back around.
Messaging should be sincere and engaging and considerate of the situation. You should always think about how it may be perceived by audiences before releasing anything. Good content will not only help to build back your reputation, but it could increase sales once more.
With crisis management, there’s no one size fits all approach and it can vary depending on the circumstances you’re working with. Ultimately, influencer marketing should go hand in hand with your PR and marketing strategies to affect how your brand is viewed.
Are you needing to manage your brand’s reputation? We are experts in PR crisis communications and influencer marketing and can help you in your time of need. Get in touch to learn more.
For more reading, check out our 9 steps of pr crisis management and influencer marketing services now.
Independent brand consultancy, Mr B & Friends, is celebrating a strong start to 2023 as the newly appointed marketing and creative agency partner for Persimmon Homes Group.
Persimmon plc was founded in 1972 and is now one of the UK’s largest new home builders,. The Group is made up of 30 regional operating businesses, and includes the Persimmon, Charles Church and Westbury brands. Across these brands, they build homes for a wide demographic of homeowner and are committed to the highest standards of design, construction and service, holding the accolade of being awarded 5 stars by the Home Builders Federation.
Mr B & Friends has been retained as lead creative partner and will work closely with Persimmon’s marketing and customer experience team across brand strategy, identity, customer engagement and acquisition campaigns, CX, physical and digital environments, and social.
Simon Barbato, Founder and CEO of Mr B & Friends, says, “To say that we’re thrilled to have been chosen as Persimmon’s partner agency is a massive understatement. We are absolutely aligned with their ambition, can see the development potential in their brands and are looking forward to learning more about their products, customers, and internal stakeholders. I’m sure this is going to be a very successful collaboration. The appointment marks a positive start to the year for us and we’re looking forward to delivering on our promises to create outstanding marketing activity for the Group.”
Sonia da Costa, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Persimmon added, “We immediately felt at home with Mr B & Friends. From the first meeting it was obvious to us that they had the talent, experience, and ambition to support our brand and marketing vision. We also aligned really well with their no-nonsense culture and early indications suggest that this will be a great partnership. We’re very excited to be getting started.”
Work has already begun on the account with the first major advertising campaign launched at the end of the year.
The appointment marks another significant win for the agency, which has recently welcomed The LEGO Group, Haleon plc, the NHS, Bristol Zoo and British Canoeing into its portfolio. With an eye firmly on growth, Mr B & Friends is also underway with plans to open a satellite office in the US in 2023.
Independent brand agency Mr B & Friends has appointed agency growth expert Gellan Watt to help accelerate the agency’s capability as it gears up for international expansion.
Over the next four years, the agency will be creating 35 new roles as it creates a presence in London, US and Singapore, while also bolstering the team at its Bristol HQ.
Gellan Watt is one of the industry’s leading growth experts. Having founded Thinking Juice in 2003, Watt went on to merge the business with the Emerge Group – a £60m agency group at exit in 2016.
A strategist and creative director at heart, Watt now works with a portfolio of independent agencies as a strategic advisor and NED.
Founder and CEO Simon Barbato says “Gellan and I have known each other for several years, and I’ve always been blown away by his energy, ideas and boldness. Being with him energises me and I’m now looking forward to him sprinkling his magic dust on our Senior Leadership Team and the wider team”.
“Gellan’s primary objective will be to grow the capability in our practice areas: strategy, creative and client service. We have such strength in each of these areas already – so this is about making it world-class. That’s his level, and that’s where we want to be”.
Gellan Watt added: “I’ve long been an admirer of what Simon and the team do at Mr B & Friends. Their work is powerful, provocative and intelligent. They’re first class. I look forward to the adventures ahead.”
The appointment commences in February and Watt will work closely with the Board and SLT to prioritise development programmes.
ChatGPT has gained a lot of coverage in the news over the past month and for good reason. This new language model chatbot developed by OpenAI has the chance to revolutionise SEO and digital marketing.
ChatGPT’s growth has been phenomenal, hitting 1 million users in just 5 days, (according to Greg Brockman, President and Co-Founder of OpenAI). It’s fascinating to compare this adoption rate to other revolutionary technologies (which you can see below), for example Instagram, took 2.5 months to get to the same user level.
We thought it would be useful to share some of the team’s thoughts on the new software and what our approach will be to using it in 2023. We will cover its full impact on search marketing covering Varn’s 4 key service lines for delivering ‘full service SEO’.
Before we get into its impact on search marketing, let’s provide a bit of background on the software and why it is causing such a stir.
ChatGPT has taken the digital marketing world by storm over the last month and many have started to incorporate it into their content development strategy, using it to contribute to articles and other forms of content be it writing video scripts and coming up with blog ideas.
So what is ChatGPT? Well let’s see what the software has to say for itself….
“ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that uses deep learning to generate human-like text. It is trained on a large dataset of text and can be fine-tuned for specific tasks such as language translation, question answering, and text summarization. ChatGPT can generate text that is similar to that written by a human and is often used in chatbots and other natural language processing applications.”
As far as Technical SEO goes, ChatGPT could potentially help streamline the process of optimising websites.
One important element of Technical SEO is a website’s navigation. It is important that the navigation makes sense to users and has a clear hierarchy. Historically this has always been something that takes a reasonable amount of time to manually review. However, an advanced machine learning algorithm like GPT should be able to think similarly to a human and predict what a user of a website would expect from the site’s navigation. For example, it is possible that GPT would be able to review your site navigation, and suggest which content should be moved to make more sense from a user and hierarchical point of view. The resulting recommendations are still something that should be manually reviewed by an SEO professional, but it could potentially save a reasonable amount of time.
Another much more dubious technique, (one that we would not recommend), is that people could use ChatGPT for Tech SEO in order to create content related to your target keywords. In order to get a page to rank on Google, it helps to have a decent amount of body copy on the page, copy which is focused on the keywords you want to rank for. Using ChatGPT to generate this content could potentially help to get a site ranking more quickly, whilst making content creation easier for your website admin. However, there are a number of problems with this approach. Firstly, AI generated content goes against Google’s guidelines. This means that if Google were to identify your content as AI generated then they could potentially penalise your rankings.
It’s interesting to note that ChatGPT has been working to add a watermark to its generated content so that AI generated copy can be identified more easily. This watermark would be difficult to remove as it is a statistical pattern that is embedded into individual words or even punctuation marks within the generated content. This watermark is another potential way for Google to recognise that the copy hasn’t been manually produced, which again could lead to penalisation. There is also no guarantee that another user will never be presented with the same AI generated content, thus also leading to potential issues with duplicate content.
When it comes to digital PR and content, the software seems to have a lot of potential applications, but for now at least, human insights, input and creativity will be needed to create content that gets cut through online.
Some of the potential applications when it comes to content assistance include:
The above is not an exhaustive list, but it is an exciting time for those in content marketing and digital as we see more sophisticated AI tools come to market which should get better over time.
It’s vital not to forget that from an SEO perspective, Google states on it’s website that when a user enters a query, their machines search the index for matching pages and return the results they believe are the highest quality and most relevant to the user’s query.
The big question is whether Google thinks bot created content is the highest quality, and we would suggest that it probably isn’t yet. Therefore we have a note of caution – be careful of any agency who says they are going to use ChatGPT to get you to the top of Google. They are most likely seeing ChatGPT as a shortcut/cheat to generating content, rather than a legitimate way to create ‘the highest quality content’. This may obviously change in time though.
Under it’s ‘Google Search Essentials’ page, Google states under its ‘Key best practice’:
“While there are many things you can do to improve your site’s SEO, there are a few core practices that can have the most impact on your web content’s ranking and appearance on Google Search.”
The first is ‘Create helpful, reliable, people-first content.’ When expanding on this Google states:
‘Google’s automated ranking systems are designed to present helpful, reliable information that’s primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings, in the top Search results.’
Our recommendation if you are involved in Search Marketing, keep up to date with the latest developments and trends emerging with ChatGPT, but importantly spend time making sure you comply with the advice from Google about content which you can find here.
We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Automated Bidding, Smart Shopping, Performance Max. It’s been proven that we can combine a strategic human touch with the power of automation to enhance performance marketing.
Two areas of research needed before running a paid campaign are the keywords you choose to bid on and the messaging you put in your ads. This will determine who sees your ads and the likelihood of them clicking and converting. ChatGPT can be very useful as a starting point for both of these areas. It can offer up fresh ideas in an unbiased way.
Keyword Research
Ad Copy Research
Whilst ChatGPT does provide really high quality content to use for campaigns, it may not be as high quality and personal as a person writing that copy, with a touch of human insight and copywriting flair. As a human, and not an AI, we are able to factor in elements such as USPs, brand knowledge, target demographics and audience that you would want to appeal to in the ad copy. However, ChatGPT is certainly a good starting point for generating ad copy and keyword research.
Data Analytics and Reporting is one of the most important areas of search marketing. If you don’t have adequate reporting setup, you are not able to evaluate how your strategies are performing and which strategies you should push for going forward.
One way a machine learning service like ChatGPT could be useful for Data Analytics is as a provider of information. Not only can you ask GPT questions and get a concise answer, you can also add a correction or modifier to that question after the fact, and GPT is smart enough to understand. For example, here we asked about how to track a certain metric in Looker Studio, and after not being satisfied with the answer, were able to quickly modify our request without retyping the original question.
Varn: How do I track average page views in Looker Studio
GPT: To track average page views in Looker Studio, you will need to use a score card. First, create a blank report from the Looker Studio home screen. Then, use the formula box to type in ‘Views/Sessions’ and save the calculated field. Finally, add the score card to your report. You will then be able to track your average page views.
Varn: No, I meant as a graph
GPT: To create a graph of average page views in Looker Studio, you will need to use a line chart. First, create a blank report from the Looker Studio home screen. Then, use the formula box to type in ‘Views/Sessions’ and save the calculated field. Next, select your metrics and dimensions and add a new chart. Finally, add the line chart to your report. You will then be able to track your average page views in a visual graph format.
This ability for ChatGPT to condense complex information into simple text format allows us to treat the service like a co-pilot when working out tricky problems in analytics software.
Our view is that ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionise the way we approach search marketing, but at the moment it should be seen as a useful place to start to help you to quickly and conveniently curate information. We think it’s critical to remember that whilst ChatGPT is a great tool, (and will only get better), you need to use it as a starting point or springboard for creating content.
The value of excellence in search marketing deliverables, will always come by adding in the human touch.
Having an understanding of your company’s tone of voice, what works with the audience and an in-depth understanding of what you are looking to achieve is essential. This is the human bit that AI and robots simply can’t replicate.
ChatGPT will be unable to grasp the intricacies and nuances of human behaviour and responses. As people we can inherently tap into the very unique asset of our 5 senses, to ensure any AI generated content is then made relevant, engaging and meaningful. Our view is that the human power of creativity, innovative ideas and strategic understanding make content, ads and SEO insights impactful and actionable, and will always trump a ‘cut and paste’ of AI generated content. In addition, we know that for successful long-term SEO strategy, it’s critical to understand your competition and to have a clear strategy. ChatGPT will only be helpful up to a point for this… we liken it to having a football-playing robot. They’ll only be helpful if they are told what team to play on!
Our recommendation is to now let’s carefully watch this space. The search marketing landscape may well evolve and change quickly and with Microsoft reportedly to add ChatGPT to it’s Bing search engine, it’s worth keeping your eyes out for what happens to Bing market share, and Google’s response to this immediate challenge
Finally, if you are interested ChatGPT’s opinion about how it will influence search marketing, this is what it ‘thinks’….
“Its advanced natural language processing capabilities can help businesses to create high-quality, unique content and improve their search engine rankings. Additionally, ChatGPT can also be used to create chatbots that can provide faster and more efficient customer service, helping businesses to improve the user experience and increase customer satisfaction. As the capabilities of ChatGPT continue to evolve, it is likely that we will see even more ways in which it can be used to improve search marketing and other areas of business.”
This month we have been working on our usual mix of branding and digital creative production and working hard on our retail clients’ Christmas marketing campaigns, which certainly kept us busy at the end of last year!
We worked alongside the creative young minds of Bristol City College, where students created a range of unique and innovative products from a brief we provided. We were so impressed with the quality of work produced and the creative ideas that came from the students this year; you can read more about the project below!
The Fanatic Digital Marketing team was nominated and had the honour of attending the UK Search Awards 2022! More about the event can be found under the Digital heading below.
We also had the pleasure of welcoming Sean to the Fanatic family this month. See how he’s settling in, in his Q&A further down!
BRISTOL CITY COLLEGE
This is the second year we have been working with the City of Bristol College Graphic Design department to help their students gain the experience of being briefed and then presenting their work within a commercial environment. This year we set a brief to create the branding and packaging for a line of English Alcoholic drinks, specifically Wine, Mead, Cider to a spirit, influenced by our work with Lyme Bay Winery. We also spent some time with the students, who are studying for an HND, in a workshop talking about their ideas halfway through the 2-month project process.
We were presented with a great variety of ideas, including the brand Humble, presented by Sabrina, with a clear concept dating back to the idea of Mead being sent from the heavens for the humble worker. Tying in the fact that the drink is a honey base, and illustrations of worker bees, completed a great brand story.
Gia presented a Cider concept based on the English skyline, using heritage fighter planes hand-painted illustrations and bold, clean colour schemes to execute three strikings can designs.
In recent times, many of our Umbraco projects have included the creation or updating of websites to .NET Core. As the latest releases of Umbraco require .NET Core, this implementation of .NET brings about significant changes to the code’s syntax and structure. Our development team is constantly learning, using new techniques and researching the latest ways of coding to keep our technologies at the forefront of the industry. During Umbraco migrations, especially with our bespoke coded apps that run alongside our Umbraco websites, there has been a lot of R&D going into this area recently.
One instance had our developer, Phil, struggling to find a solution. After trying Google, stack overflow and our usual resources, he was unsuccessful in finding the answers he needed. Instead of continuing to search, Phil turned to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an unlikely but helpful ally. This AI tool has learned from an impressive amount of data online and can provide answers and clarity on even the most specific requests. After posing his question to the AI, Phil received two different solutions to the problem, each accompanied by an explanation of how the function would work. It was truly impressive.
We find the ChatGPT raises the bar of what we can expect from a search when AI is used; most impressively, the ChatGPT can actually give opinions as it has included a forum and social chat within its learning source materials. Cool, but scary stuff!
UK SEARCH AWARDS 2022!
The UK Search Awards celebrates the expertise, talent and achievements of the search industry and has been running for over a decade. It is regarded as the premiere celebration of SEO, PPC and content marketing in the UK, and this year Fanatic had the honour of being nominated in 4 categories!
Being nominated for the Best low budget campaign, Best local campaign, Best use of search – Health and Best use of search – Travel / Leisure was a huge honour. Despite not winning any awards this time around, it was great to see the work we are doing getting the recognition it deserves. Our teams have worked hard to create some amazing campaigns, websites, designs and much more over the years and to see Fanatic nominated in so many categories was a lovely way to finish 2022.
It’s been great so far, I’ve been made to feel very welcome. After working in a remote rural location for a couple of years, it’s nice to be back in the hustle and bustle of the city!
I have spent the last ten years doing digital marketing in-house for e-commerce websites selling all kinds of products, ranging from swimwear to organic foods!
During my interviews, it was clear that Fanatic have a culture of going the extra mile (and a bit further) for their clients, which really appealed to me. I’m glad to have joined such a passionate, creative and driven team.
I’m enjoying being in the studio in Bristol, there’s a great atmosphere about the place and the team are all so friendly!
I’m looking forward to working closely with everyone across all of the teams. It’s already clear that there is a huge wealth of knowledge in the company. I’d like to pick up some new tips on design and development while continuing to increase my digital marketing knowledge.
In my free time, I love to be creative! Design and illustration are two hobbies I enjoy; I also print some of my designs onto merchandise which I sell on Etsy.
Event: The CMO’s Guide to Customer Acquisition
Microsoft will join a select panel of senior marketing professionals in Bristol this March to discuss how businesses can best drive more online customers through digital marketing.
Hosted by South West performance agency Launch, the breakfast event will be held on March 22nd at the Showcase Cinema de Lux in Bristol from 8:30 – 11am.
The CMO’s Guide to Customer Acquisition will provide a vital opportunity for like-minded marketers and brands to listen and debate with other CMOs about their successes, challenges and their strategies around data, conversion optimisation and paid media.
Marion Gould, Client Partner Lead at Microsoft, will be speaking on ‘Marketing with purpose: how to create a strong brand in digital marketing.’ Also on the schedule is the managing director of Launch, Jaye Cowle, who will chair a panel debate with senior marketing leaders to open the event, discussing the evolution of performance marketing.
Jaye Cowle says: “This is set to be a really insightful event for marketers, brands, and business owners. Together with our brilliant guests, and media partner Microsoft, you can learn how brands like yours are getting the most from their performance marketing activity.”
In addition to Microsoft, there will be panel discussion with Barney Bell, Head of Marketing for David Salisbury; Piers Tincknell from Atomic Smash and Harriet Barter, Account Director at Launch, on ‘Why channel diversification is key to converting and finding new audiences.’
Data Strategist, Michael Patten, will discuss the countdown to GA4 in ‘Leverage your data to target new customers.’ In addition, Launch’s Conversion Director Joe Johnston will be joined by Account Manager Josh Marinaro to discuss the customer experience: ‘How incremental website changes can bring big results.’
Find out more about the schedule and book a place at this event
Picture: Marion Gould, Client Partner Lead at Microsoft, will be speaking on Marketing with Purpose.
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