Clubhouse, an invite-only audio-chat iPhone app with a reported US$1 billion valuation, is quickly becoming the talk of the marketing world.
The company describes itself as “a new type of social product based on voice [that] allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world.”
Picture the app as much like going along to a networking cocktail party. You can wander in at your leisure, jump in and out of different chat bubbles, you can choose to simply listen and take in the conversation, or you can add your own thoughts into the mix. In a nutshell, the app is a live, free-flowing podcast that you can engage with in real-time.
So, can the Clubhouse app benefit your business? Should you be adding this platform to your brand marketing strategy?
In this blog, you’ll learn why brands of all industries should consider having an active presence on Clubhouse and those all-important tips for growing a following on Clubhouse.
So, if you want to tap into the app’s community and use it to grow your brand and influence, keep reading!
Clubhouse gives brands a huge opportunity for brands to engage with consumers in a way like never before. The app has an open, conversational feel which enables marketers to develop a more ‘personal’ relationship with their audience. It’s much like the intimate space that podcasts offer, but on another level as the audience can actively engage with the conversations on the Clubhouse platform.
Brands can really establish themselves as thought leaders within their industry, creating rooms on various subjects where you can provide valuable insights and start interesting conversations.
Brands should leverage Clubhouse much like they would a podcast by hosting interesting conversations, interviews and discussions relevant to the key target audience. It’s a simple and no-cost way to provide value to your community, building trust with a new audience who may ultimately become customers.
As well as engaging with your audience of potential customers, Clubhouse gives you the opportunity to build relationships with other business owners and influencers. Social media platforms are often used to make company announcements and push sales messaging. Yet, if we go back to the initial use of these networks – to connect and collaborate – we can get much more out of them.
From exchanging industry tips and tricks, to simply building great friendships with people you share common ground with; the app offers a fresh and exciting way to make new connections.
All marketers know the value of social listening: the act of following online conversations within your industry to uncover invaluable insights. The incredible power of Clubhouse lies within the ability for brands to listen in to industry conversations and engage with consumers in real-time, without encroaching on privacy.
Savvy marketers and business owners will leverage the app to listen to the topics that are important to their consumers. Clubhouse provides a huge learning opportunity and provides insight directly into the topics that are on the radar of your audience. These insights could be used to influence important business processes from service offerings to marketing strategy.
The social listening opportunities of Clubhouse also give businesses an incredible opportunity to stay on top of all the latest trends within your industry. The key to doing this is to follow key influencers of the industry, make sure you’re following all the categories associated with your business niche, and also keep tabs on your competitors.
By doing all of the above, you’ll soon curate a tailored timeline of relevant industry content and interests, which will give you a daily stream of information on trends to keep an eye on, news and updates within the industry, and consumer sentiment. Simply choose a chat that takes your fancy, listen, take notes and learn!
Do you often find yourself with a bunch of business ideas that you’re dying to get a second opinion on? Clubhouse provides the perfect set up to throw out feelers for any business ideas that might be floating around inside your head. Simply set up a room and ask for feedback from your audience who are likely to have some useful insights and solutions to help take your idea forward (or tell you it’s a terrible idea and reasons why it won’t work…).
Aside from using Clubhouse to gather feedback early on in the process of new business ideas, you’ll also want to collect feedback at all of the major milestones in the development of the product or service. Gaining customer insight on how users are liking the new additions to the product and what they’d like to see in the future can help guide your product roadmap and create a stronger product in the end.
Clubhouse can also be a great platform to connect with investors. You can start a room to discuss your business and get feedback from investors about how to improve your pitch, product or service to appeal to other investors. You can also join other rooms and discussions to talk about what you do and help provide solutions to problems with your industry knowledge, all while promoting your business.
The newness and exclusive nature of Clubhouse means that at the moment, it is not too saturated. This makes it the optimum time to create an account (if you’re lucky enough to get an invite, if not, be sure to download the app and join the waiting list) and start building a community to propel your brand marketing to new heights of success.
Want to learn more about how to incorporate Clubhouse into your marketing strategy? Get in touch today.
eCommerce sales in the UK have continued to rise over the years, growing from a market value of £513.5 billion in 2014 to £693 billion in 2019. The pandemic forcing more Britons to stay home has massively accelerated this growth, pushing retail eCommerce sales past 30% of total retail sales in 2020.
In the uncertain world that we all live in today, to say that promoting your online store is important would be an understatement. Capturing the attention of a digital audience, however, requires digital marketing know-how, and when it comes to getting a foothold in the search engine results pages (SERPs) there really are only two main marketing channels to explore: organic SEO and paid search or pay-per-click (PPC).
In this mini-guide, we’ll briefly explore the main tools at your disposal to help push your eCommerce sales and grow your brand online.
eCommerce SEO is the practice of improving the search rankings of your online store for a whole host of related search terms so that potential customers are more likely to find you whenever they use a search engine to look for relevant products. It includes tactics such as creating intuitive, navigable site architecture and using well-researched keywords in product and product category pages, as well as creating a whole host of informative supplementary content and guides to really demonstrate your industry expertise.
Whether it’s your home page or any of your product pages, all have a better chance of ranking high in the SERPs of search engines like Google if you apply eCommerce SEO.
eCommerce SEO is vital for any business with an online store, as it drives organic search traffic and is an investment in building a brand’s digital presence.
Google Ads is Google’s advertising platform which allows you to display advertisements on their platforms, including Google Search Network. You have to pay Google for every action users take such as clicking on your ad (hence pay-per-click), but only then and not before.
As with eCommerce SEO, your online store will benefit from Google Ads by appearing high on the SERPs, specifically in Google Search, with increased site traffic and potentially improved conversions and sales. The key difference is that paid ads are shown before organic search results, so they can get more immediate attention from people who use Google Search.
You get what you pay for with Google Ads, and you have to keep investing money into it if you want your ads to stay up. In this way, the ROI is very transient as it’s entirely dependent on you maintaining your click budget (unlike organic SEO where the investment takes longer to materialise but will give you longer-lasting results).
Google Shopping shows ads of products for sale on various Google channels, including Google Search, from online stores that take advantage of the service. People who click on a Google Shopping ad are directed to the product page of the seller’s online store where they can complete the purchase.
Convenience is one of Google Shopping’s major benefits, as you only have to submit product info and a picture for your ad. Google will take what you’ve provided and show your ad to the most relevant audience.
A Google Shopping ad shows the product’s price and aggregate user rating for products with reviews. Such info is useful for qualifying leads, as those who click on Google Shopping ads already have set expectations and are more willing to make purchases.
Google Shopping falls under Google Ads, so it’s PPC that you also have to budget for to keep your Shopping ads running.
SEO and PPC are good on their own, but when they are both done together, the results can be outstanding.
You can use Google Ads to test out keywords that you’re thinking of targeting for your eCommerce SEO efforts. Paid ads can quickly drive significant traffic to your site, which you can then check if that same traffic results in conversions for the keywords you targeted. Depending on the results, you can choose to use those keywords for your SEO or not.
Conversely, you can use the data from your eCommerce SEO keyword research to bolster your PPC campaigns by targeting keywords that you already know perform well.
There are other ways to synergise SEO and PPC, but the core principle when using both is to use the data gathered from one method to inform and optimise the strategies for the other.
For eCommerce SEO, the top three metrics to consider are the following:
All of these are available in Google Search Console.
Meanwhile, PPC campaigns measure:
Google Analytics lets you track all these metrics for your Google Ads campaigns.
Apart from on-site SEO and PPC campaigns, online businesses can also greatly benefit from being connected to a network of blogs and influencers within their industries.
There is the broad benefit of building awareness for your brand when other websites and thought leaders mention your company on their platforms. It also has a more specific and material benefit of getting links back to your eCommerce store, which is important to improve your ranking.
You can start by researching blogs and influencers that cover the kind of products you sell and talk to your target audience. Build a rapport with them by commenting on their posts and interacting with their social media accounts genuinely.
Over time and with an established professional relationship, you can then ask to contribute to their websites with a guest post and get a link back to your online store in return.
Bitcade is a Bristol-based retro arcade machine manufacturer that was lagging behind its competitors in online search before Superb Digital implemented PPC and SEO campaigns.
Superb Digital, an SEO agency in Bristol, started with a Google Ads campaign, putting up both text and shopping ads. Sales shot up by 181% at the end of the first month and another 30% after two more months with further improvements to the campaign such as reducing their CPA.
With the initial sales boost and confidence in their digital marketing, Bitcade greenlit a full eCommerce SEO campaign.
We implemented on-site optimisation based on thorough competitor and keyword research, created a blog with rich, insightful content, building links with lifestyle and gaming bloggers, and overhauled the site design to make it more visually appealing and easier to use.
There were consistent increases in rankings and revenue for the first six months. This groundwork prepared Bitcade for the rise of digital purchases during the pandemic, resulting in a massive 297% increase in leads and a 370% upturn in revenue 12 months into the campaign. Suffice to say, Bitcade’s founder, Jack England, has been over the moon about the results and is continuing to invest in his digital marketing with us.
If you’re hitting a brick wall with your search rankings or have seen a recent drop then it could be time you engage with a reputable and trusted SEO agency. At Superb Digital we can help with your organic SEO and PPC campaigns, as well as other elements of your digital strategy.
Get in touch with us today and we’ll be more than happy to look into your online store (or any type of website for that matter) and put together a no-strings-attached quote.
E-Commerce is one of the world’s most lucrative industries. More than ever, businesses need to have an online presence if they want to keep their customers loyal to their products, services and brand. COVID-19 has only accelerated this need for organisations to get digital, put their product data online and offer a completely virtual service.
Of course, it’s easier said than done whether you’re a multi-national organisation or part of a smaller, specialised industry. Your main challenge is getting your product data from its source to your end user, quickly and accurately. And when your end user has the ability to interact with your product data in multiple ways, across any number of different platforms, that challenge grows in complexity.
So how do you manage this data flow? Having an effective Product Information Management tool (PIM) is key.
A PIM centralises your product data information and assets, including product specification data and any associated media assets, before distributing that data to multiple sources. Put simply, a PIM ensures your data flow is as efficient as possible.
In manufacturing, for example, it’s typical for product data to originate from older, legacy systems, where it’s input at the factory during the production stage. Then, the marketing teams responsible for selling these products have the daunting task of translating this data – often manually – in order to get it online. This process then often requires manual intervention again, to keep it up to date.
Processing the data manually in this way creates a disconnect between the marketing data and the product data: they’re never in sync with one another. And that leaves room for error.
According to Ventana Research, 46% of companies that don’t have one single source of product information, and instead, use Excel spreadsheets to manage product data.
This can be a serious problem. 47% of the above companies admit they often find product-related errors and almost 20% of those errors have a major detrimental impact on sales performance. PIM is the solution.
Your customers interact with your data on many different devices, through their desktop, mobiles, or even via their smart speaker. So, having an application with a modern Application Programming Interface (API) becomes essential in your data workflow.
By using a RESTful API your product data can be shared easily, as it’s exposed in a predictable, interactive format.
But not all organisations can commit the time, resource or budget to completely overhaul their systems, end-to-end, all the way to the factory level. Instead, there are other options.
To alleviate problems caused by disparate, legacy data, you can break the process down into smaller, more manageable applications. This is known as having a microservices architecture. Microservices are dedicated applications which focus on one dedicated function: in this case, in consuming your legacy data, transforming it into an end-user friendly format, then injecting that data into a PIM.
This approach ensures your original base data is kept up to date, and maintains data availability even if there’s a breakdown in one part of the workflow or chain.
Using cloud services, such as AWS, we can leverage tools like SQS and Lambda to support a decoupled architecture. Not only does decoupled microservices architecture prevent potential data loss, and preserve service in the event of application breakdown, it improves performance by offloading queue management and data flow into the Cloud.
A final but essential consideration, no matter what systems and applications you use: data security.
Experimental product data can be incredibly sensitive, so keeping it secure at both the point of origin and in-transit is important, as is ensuring pre-production data doesn’t accidentally end up publicly viewable. A PIM provides protection by implementing strict workflows for your data.
There are many applications and frameworks out there specifically designed as PIMs, and they range in price depending on the supplier and the size of your product data.
Likewise, every business has different workflows and product data structures. Once you include a legacy data issue you’re having, it’s rare that any off-the-shelf-solution will meet your requirements exactly. A custom solution is often the way forward. And this is where using a flexible framework, such as Drupal, has distinct advantages.
Drupal is an enterprise-level content framework with many applications. Traditionally it’s a content management system, but its latest version is much more than that.
Drupal has a powerful entity framework, allowing you to model almost any data. Its strong community – made up of real people struggling with the same challenges as you are – has developed countless modules and plug-ins to enhance functionality.
And what’s more, since Drupal is open source, there are no licence fees or user usage limits. So every penny of your investment goes where you need it: into solving your specific workflow and data modelling challenges.
No matter how large or technical your datasets, nor how specialised your business is, you deserve to get the most from your digital applications.
At Proctors, our team of technology experts have been solving problems for specialist businesses across the globe: from tech behemoths like Panasonic, to niche industry start-ups. When it comes to talking data, you’ll want to talk to Proctors.
We’re more than happy to put our heads together with yours and discover the best solution for your business.
Futureheads is a leading tech recruitment business working to build teams for some of the UK’s most exciting tech-led businesses. Futureheads engaged Bristol-based comms agency, Yours Sincerely, to act as their external marketing team, with the aim to take their marketing to the next level, re-engage with their existing users and bring the Futureheads brand to a whole new audience.
Working directly with the Board and Senior Leadership Team, Yours Sincerely initially worked with Futureheads to develop a detailed marketing strategy. This strategy built on their existing plans, whilst also activating new ways of working to supercharge marketing efforts. What’s more, and crucially in terms of delivery, this strategy was built specifically to deliver against the wider business’s commercial objectives.
Following this, a detailed channel plan was built and YS began delivering against this, acting as Futureheads marketing team. Tactics implemented spanned the digital spectrum, including everything from content marketing, email, paid search and social, to PR, digital events and more.
Within 12 months of working together, Yours Sincerely had:
Co-founder of Futureheads, Be Kaler Pilgrim, commented:
“We chose to work with YS as they really understand our business, our wider strategy goals, and what we are trying to achieve. Within the first three months we saw our social KPIs jump more than our total goal for the previous year, and have continued to see similar successes across a number of channels. As the business landscape has changed, they’ve adapted with us, continuing to add value and their expertise. We very much see the team at YS as part of the Futureheads team and would recommend them to anyone.”
If you are looking to supercharge your marketing strategy this year, Yours Sincerely would love to help.
Does your blog need a strategy? Yes! I write blogs for businesses, but whether you have a business blog or a personal blog, it needs a strategy.
I come from a marketing background and have worked for full-service agencies for my entire 20-year career. I’ve worked with businesses on a complete range of communications, from feature articles in trade publications to LinkedIn profile management, from entire suites of marketing materials to direct e-mail or postal campaigns. Working across so many channels it’s vital to have a coherent communications strategy that ties everything together. Messages need to be tailored to each channel, but all channels need to be portraying the same consistent company image. The same theory applies to blogging.
Consistency is key
Business blogs need an overriding strategy to ensure the messaging throughout remains consistent and on target. That’s not to say all blogs are saying the same thing, but while they all need to work by themselves as standalone posts, they also need to work as a series, for visitors who land on your blog, like what they see and want to find out more.
Here are some of my top tips for creating a strategy for your blog:
Business blogs with a clear strategy not only run more smoothly, but also garner better results. Do you already have a blogging strategy in place and if so, how closely do you stick to it blog by blog?
Blogging for business is a hugely valuable tool – here are what I consider to be the top 5 benefits. Let me know if you agree.
It’s not easy to build and maintain a business blog, it takes time and effort either from your in-house resources or external support, but with these benefits and more, it is a worthwhile investment.
Once you’ve taken the important step to set up a blog on your company website, it’s important to keep it up to date to maximise its benefits. But it’s not always easy to think of things to say. Here are my top tips for generating new content for your business blog.
Of course, thinking of what to say is only half of the battle. Then you need to find the time to put pen to paper or more likely fingers to keys! If you know just what to say and you need help writing it, or maybe you need help coming up with some of the ideas too – maybe an external blog writer can help?
There is a lot going on in the world right now – a pandemic, Brexit, and a lot of global uncertainty, but there are also a lot of opportunities.
Global trade is rebounding far quicker than it did after the 2008 financial crisis. Shipping volumes returned to levels in half the time that took to reach post-Lehman. Central banks are continuing to steam ahead with unprecedented financial support packages, driving some global stock markets to record gains.
Most importantly, different countries will recover from this period at different speeds. Which ones will recover faster? Which markets show the opportunity most suited to your expansion plans?
Maybe you have spotted an opportunity?
You need to consider these three things when looking to expand into new markets in 2021.
You have been working with your agency for a couple of years. They have a solid team and presence in a few different countries. You have talked to them about moving into different markets. It was a conversation that brought you excitement. They may have even offered to hire in specific countries for you. “Great,” you thought.
Do not remain with your existing partners for multi-market growth unless you have an extremely good reason to.
Dig into their network properly – assess their depth of expertise in different markets. Do they partner? Do they have a handful of account handlers in different countries and call that ‘international’? What is their client base? Which markets do their client base operate in? Are they showing bias by leading you into new markets based on their own experience?
The key to having a successful international partner is that they genuinely demonstrate to you that they have a substantial network that they have full control over (not partnerships). They need to be focused on the ways and means of providing the agility and connectivity that powers that network.
Customer experience has been an excellent buzzword for a few years. And yes, worry not, we have a customer journey loop we are proud of as well.
If you are looking to expand into a new market, the fundamentals should be understanding the culture and context of a new market. It is not about customer journey mapping in a conventional sense, but it is about truly getting to understand the culture, the context and how to reach customers in your new market. You can only really do this by assembling a team of people who deeply understand the markets you are moving into.
Get your context and cultural understand wrong and you have spent a lot of money and time launching into a new market badly.
What we have seen from clients who engaged with us throughout 2020 is that almost 100% needed help in planning their entry into new markets. The business case was there and strategically it made sense, but the substance in a business case needed building.
This comes from deep exploration into new markets. And by that, I do not mean spending time on ‘Google Market Finder’. I mean local insights – insights based on cultural understanding and a very deep level of data that is well assembled to digest and interpret.
Processing this data, at speed, is very difficult to do well across multiple markets without the right toolset and teams experienced in handling this data. Look for true added value from tools that your partner is offering or look to acquire some. Find a partner who will present you with assimilated data in ways you did not know possible to give you the context you really need.
Spend time interpreting and analyzing this data and ensure your entry into a new market is data-led and well researched, so you fully appreciate the opportunity (and pitfalls) of your strategy.
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