With COVID-19 meaning social distancing is the new norm, we’re seeing profound effects on our lives. Face-to-face meetings, gatherings and events aren’t possible, making this a difficult time for the general population and most industries. For many businesses, budgets are under increasing pressure as revenue streams are cut and operational and marketing methods undergo huge upheaval.
As a society, we’re worried about our health, our families’ health, our wellbeing and our job security. Now is not the time for brands to choose a hard-sell approach, or to appear to be ‘cashing in’ on – or even preying on – social insecurity, as audiences become less receptive and more critical of insincere marketing.
So how can businesses maintain those physical interactions that are so vital to customer engagement, and promote their services in as effective and relevant a way as possible?
One option for connecting with your customers is through hosting a digital event.
Digital events have become more prominent in the last few years, and offer a range of benefits:
Two of the primary forms of digital events are webcasts and webinars. The terms are often used interchangeably, but in fact, they both feature a distinctly different approach to hosting an online event.
If you want to engage with a larger audience, featuring tens or even hundreds of participants, a webcast is an ideal way to broadcast your message.
Webcasts are typically a one-way flow of information shared over the internet, delivered like a lecture or speech. In cases where there are a large number of participants, a webcast gives you the opportunity to deliver a valuable presentation with minimum disruption.
If you’re looking for a higher level of engagement with your audience, a webinar might be a better option. A webinar more closely resembles a meeting, often with fewer participants who are more involved in the content. In this two-way, interactive option, your audience can ask questions, and there’s more opportunity for you to drive direct interaction.
For the very highest level of engagement where creativity and collaboration is needed most, virtual workshops create an effective environment within the digital sphere. In ‘real-life’ face-to-face creative workshops, structure is often more fluid, but this can be difficult to achieve in an online environment. To successfully deliver a virtual workshop, you should have a clearly-defined process for organising and managing participation, and use easy-to-implement, highly intuitive technology, to smooth the delivery process.
If you’re looking to fully replicate an existing conference or event, then a virtual tradeshow could be well suited for you. Virtual tradeshows can be hosted indefinitely, taking place online with on-demand information. By using live chat options and providing customer support, your visitors can experience the same feeling of instant, responsive communication as they would in a face-to-face expo.
In a virtual tradeshow, you can host digital exhibition halls, booths and auditoriums, helping you to replicate the immersive experience of a real-life event. However, it’s worth noting that this type of event the longest lead time, and can be costly to set up.
In this blog, we look at the different types of digital events, how you can build your audience for your events, and provide some top tips for success.
Different events will attract different audience sizes and levels of engagement. Its success will often rely on the quality and number of participants in the audience you manage to attract.
Traditionally, digital events are split into two audience segments; your existing database contacts, and audiences built through new lead generation.
Unless you have a well-managed and maintained database of contacts, GDPR and other data legislation, such as CCPA, can restrict the opportunity for direct email invitations to your event. So you’ll need to check this, and consider alternative lead-generation tactics if this is the case.
Social media is a great tool for driving lead generation when used creatively, and can be supplemented through media partnerships or other paid media channels – for example, search engine advertising.
One of the greatest benefits of a webinar or a webcast is that either one can be held live or made available on-demand, depending on the platform you choose to host your event. By making an event recording available after it’s taken place, you can make connections with customers and prospects who can’t necessarily attend in real-time, or who may be researching the subject after the event has already taken place.
In fact, with any online session you’ll want to consider post-webinar activity – just as you would with a live event. Your digital session is just the beginning of potential engagement, and with strategic follow-up activity you can continue to nurture leads and maintain interest. Repackaged content following a webinar can be an ideal way to sustain the conversation with customers, as can additional ‘exclusive’ materials.
With a combination of session playback and additional content, your sessions gain additional longevity – and that means maximum impact for your brand.
At P+S, we’ve been hosting digital events for years, both for our own brand, and for our clients too. Our top tips for success include:
When it comes to digital events, our in-house team can take care of everything: from determining the strategy and execution of lead generation campaigns, to designing and copywriting your presentations and content. And it’s all tied together by our expert strategists, who’ll work with you to ensure we meet – and exceed – your expectations.
If you’d like to find out more about what type of digital event would best suit your business, and how we can help you deliver it, get in touch today, by emailing [email protected].
The creation and publication of high-quality content is an essential aspect of any digital marketing strategy. If crafted and broadcasted effectively, digital content can help you achieve a wide range of goals for your business, including increasing your website traffic, reaching new prospects, bettering your brand’s reputation, and improving your online presence.
However, creating new, fresh and strong digital content on a regular basis can be both time-consuming and expensive – luxuries which many of us can’t afford right now.
In this blog, we outline how to simplify things, extend your subject matter’s lifecycle and make the most out of your available resources, through content planning, repurposing and promotion.
One way to simplify the process of content creation is to repurpose what you’ve previously published. This recycling of pre-existing content saves you the time and expense of coming up with new ideas and developing original content from scratch, by breathing new life into what you’ve already developed.
The first step is to catalogue all of your existing content and highlight the most relevant to share as quickly as possible. The types of content you could catalogue include blog articles, reports, case studies, thought-leadership pieces, white papers, magazines, videos and podcasts.
Your online audience grows and changes over time – be it blog readers, social media followers or email/newsletter subscribers. Some of them will not have been aware of content you published 18 months ago, so repurposing this increases its exposure to new audiences.
Additionally, a topic that struck the right chord with your audience once is more likely to gain traction than a completely new one, so outlining your best-performing content pieces is vital. High-performing content has a much higher ROI potential than that which didn’t perform well the first time around, as well as being likely to include nuggets of useful information, which you can use as a basis and expand on, when repurposing.
Additionally, republishing existing content on specific topics establishes your expertise in these areas, and your audience will start perceiving you as an authority figure in your industry. This, in turn, strengthens your brand’s reputation and credibility, and can even improve your search engine ranking.
Search engines have a preference for websites that deliver valuable and meaningful content to their users. Repurposing content allows you to target the same keywords over and over again without the risk of duplication, and – if the content is of a high perceived quality – search engines will recognise your expertise in these areas, and reward it by ranking you more highly, increasing your brand’s exposure and reputation.
Once you have catalogued your content, it’s time to consider how exactly you’re going to share it, and who you want it to resonate with.
In the planning stage, specific audience segments should be identified and targeted, based on your existing followers, prospects, customers and business objectives. Content is often used as a tool for traditional lead generation, particularly in B2B marketing; through the use of collateral such as white papers, reports and webinars; so, ensuring your content strategy aligns with your new business objectives is essential.
Then, to amplify the reach and exposure of your content, the best channels and times to reach your selected target audiences should be considered and combined into a post schedule. You should also consider whether the content could be adapted into new and different mediums than it was previously. For example, a webinar could be turned into a series of explainer videos for distribution on social.
And always remember to check the content in the context of today’s unique environment. If it contains an overtly selling message, it either needs to be repackaged or discarded. It is important to strike the right tone with your messaging, which should remain sensitive and thoughtful.
Promoting through paid advertising allows you to amplify your content to reach more people, and, if done effectively, can grow your brand’s online following and drive sustained levels of relevant and engaged traffic through to your website.
Typically, social media is the best channel to use for the promotion of content, with the specific channel mixture depending on your budget, your target audience and the type of content that’s being promoted. LinkedIn and Facebook advertising can be particularly effective, and you can see some example creatives from a social media advertising campaign we ran for Epson recently here.
Advertising using retargeting can also be used to show content to previous website visitors, to encourage them to return to your site and keep your brand at the front of your customer’s mind.
With any digital content strategy, it’s crucial to measure the effectiveness of the content to allow you to see what material and placement are performing best, so you can refine and optimise your activities, to receive the highest possible levels of engagement.
For performance analysis on social media, key metrics to track include reach, impressions, click-through-rate (CTR), number of followers, likes, shares, comments and engagement rates. Most social media platforms offer some kind of analytics which you can access through your profile. There are, however, a variety of tools which offer more in-depth analysis of your performance, including Hootsuite, Fanpage Karma, Keyhole and AgoraPulse.
To gain valuable insights into your content performance on your website, Google Analytics is a fantastic tool to identify the most popular pages on your website, and provide detailed information on metrics such as page views, sessions, time-on-site, bounce rates, and landing and exit pages.
Once you have identified what content is receiving the highest levels of engagement, the most successful posts can then be boosted through targeted advertising to reach new relevant users in your target audiences.
When it comes to digital content, our in-house team can take care of everything: from determining the strategy and executing lead generation campaigns, to designing, copywriting and animating your content. And it’s all tied together by our expert strategists, who’ll work with you to ensure we meet– and exceed – your expectations.
If you’d like to find out more about what type of content strategy would best suit your business, and how we can help you deliver it, get in touch today, by emailing [email protected].
After 20 years specialising in B2B marketing, I’m about to make an uncomfortable admission. Possibly one that will put a few noses out of joint among my colleagues.
While it might not be up there with the invention of the wheel or the discovery of fire in terms of significance to the human race, this one breakthrough principle might help your branding – and so your business – become more effective than ever.
The essential problem is this. As soon as we put that B2B marketing hat on, all thought of people, of individuals, and the Pandora’s box of emotions that motivate them, goes right out of the (office rather than home) window. Instead, we become subsumed by the pursuit of sentiment-free business banality, and worship at the altar of corporate largesse.
And that’s wrong. For a brand to succeed – to be memorable, to resonate, to be the preferred choice – it needs to have humanity at its heart. Less business-to-business, and more human-to-human.
Before this theory is dismissed as an unmeasurable, intangible nice-to-have, there is some science to back it up. In 2019, Deloitte Digital conducted a report, The Human Experience: Quantifying the Value of Human Values. In it, the report writers concluded that the human condition is ‘universal and unchanging’, meaning it could be understood and measured.
Taking three core indices – customer values, workforce values and partner values –Deloitte was able to identify the ‘human centricity’ of an organisation, and predict those that were likely to grow faster and build stronger brand loyalty. Applying this measure to a testbed of brands in the fast-food sector, it found that those which focused on the human experience were twice as likely to outperform their peers in revenue growth over three years, and have 17 times faster store growth than those who don’t. Quite a prize then.
In carrying out the research, Deloitte also highlighted five ‘core human tenets’ that elevate the ‘human experience’ of a brand.
· Be obsessed by all things human
· Proactively deliver on human needs
· Execute with humanity
· Be authentic
· Change the world
But what does this mean for you when you’re developing and delivering your brand to the world? For us, it means considering the fundamental building blocks…
Great brands are built on great stories. And great stories are always about emotion. Things that capture our attention, stir our souls, fascinate or move us, leave us wanting to know (or feel) more. This is where your brand should begin, even if you’re operating in the most heavy-duty B2B markets.
Three or four years ago, I heard something said in a presentation that’s stuck with me ever since – ‘authenticity beats perfection’. And authenticity comes from us being human. When we’re authentic, we’re true to ourselves and the reality that lies behind our brands. Customers and prospects are able to trust us, to engage with us fully and to become familiar with what we stand for. They believe in us.
Technology drives today’s marketing. But technology should always be a means to create richer, deeper human-to-human connections through more intuitive and immersive digital experiences. Whether it’s AR, VR, AI, automation, or anything else, the way people experience your brand through technology must always bring them closer to you. And the same goes for the physical world. In creating a truly H2H brand, experience is everything.
The way your brand looks, feels, sounds and talks all have a part to play in its humanity. Have a personality. Avoid business jargon. Communicate like a person. Don’t use staid, cliched corporate imagery and stale, high-fiving commercial footage. Look for those unique, human moments in time that tell stories and create positive emotional associations. Be different. Be unique. Be you.
Getting to the heart of your brand’s humanity isn’t always an easy thing to do. We’re all so engrained in the traditional patterns of B2B thinking and speaking that it’s often lost amidst the front-of-mind commercial arguments we’re inevitably drawn to. But make no mistake – it’s essential if you’re going to invest in a brand that’s both measurable and memorable. And one that moves human hearts and B2B minds.
Want to know more about some of the brands we’ve helped build for our B2B clients? Take a look here.
Ifyou have an upcoming project you’d like to discuss with us, or learn more about the principles of H2H branding, please get in touch today by emailing [email protected].
So, it’s time to refresh your website. You start by taking a look at what you can improve, and an audit finds your workflows aren’t quite right, your content matrix doesn’t quite work, and your design isn’t accessible. You decide a rebuild is the most effective route, so you putout a tender, choose an agency and move forward using the data you’ve collected and the issues recorded with your now defunct website.
Three years later, your company has grown and rebranded. Now, your website needs to cater for users across the globe, and your UX doesn’t quite fit newly heightened expectations. Time for another audit. You review your website, only to find the changes that need to be made will cost almost as much– and take just as long – as building an entirely new website. Before you know it, you need to start the entire process all over again.
If this story sounds familiar, you’re not alone. We’ve known many companies spend thousands on developing a website, only to find when they need even relatively small changes, there are significant cost and time implications.
Today’s accelerated pace of digital change means the traditional approach to web development has become outdated. But there is another way.
At Proctors, we’ve developed an approach to web development that gives websites the flexibility, scalability and longevity needed to support ongoing business needs.
Microservices to the rescue
Microservices architecture is a software development architecture which makes things much easier. Creating a microservice architecture involves splitting up all of the different services integrated into your website and sales process, then creating protocols for them to communicate independently to collect and deliver their data and services to users and website visitors.
Separating out your front-end into its own microservice allows you to free your design and UX from the limitations of your data systems. A separate front-end can connect to multiple data sources and present them in one central place for our users, often for multiple devices as well.
You can read more on microservices here.
What is a dedicated front-end?
At P+S, we specialise in Angular as our front-end framework of choice. While there are many front-end frameworks out there, such as React and Vue, Angular is more structured and has a more complete out-of-the-box framework. We’ve found it offers more consistent results, and is a more suitable tool for enterprise businesses.
Angular allows the front- and back-end of your website to operate as separate entities. Angular will function as the public face of your online presence to your users, and will connect to, and draw data from, all the other services using modern RESTful APIs; for example, content from Drupal and booking data from a booking engine.
This means any additional or changed functionality in the back-end of your website, such as an API integration, will not affect the front-end of your website.
An added bonus is if you realise your website needs to be updated a few years down the line, whether that’s from a UX standpoint or company rebrand, the front-end can be completely redesigned in isolation from the back-end, eliminating the need for a complete rebuild and minimising disruption to your online presence.
How can it help you?
Angular saves time and money.
Once Angular is set up alongside your content management system, your website is almost limitless.
If your company undergoes a rebrand, your Angular front-end can be re-skinned with no disruption to your website – check out our Atomic Design approach to making this process more efficient, too.
Should your company grow, the data used to set up your initial user journeys often becomes outdated. Not only is it possible for us to completely redesign how users interact with your site, we can even separate your site out further and conduct split A/B testing against other variations.
Alongside these core benefits, there are a range of other positives. You can reduce load time due to application processing taking place in the browser, rather than the server. And you can support and facilitate multilingual development in a much easier, simpler way than via a traditional CMS approach.
Finally, as many companies choose apps as a way of engaging with their customers on a more personal level, there’s potential for streamlining the process here, too. While the majority of businesses need to build their website, then build their app in iOS before building it yet again in Android, Angular makes this much simpler. You can run your apps from the CMS that drives your website (usually Drupal), and use your Angular front-end for both iOS and Android, for minimised build time, whilst avoiding the duplication of functionality as the majority of it will be readily available via your CMS.
Looking to the future
At Proctor and Stevenson, we’ve implemented a Drupal/Angular approach for a number of key clients, including global tech giant, Panasonic. This approach has enabled us to create a number of future-focused solutions for our clients, spanning multiple continents, in multiple languages and engaging millions of users.
Decoupling a front-end works extremely well for enterprise businesses which rely on legacy back-end data or back office systems, where it’s a real challenge to modernise this data and present it to customers in a modern, multi-device world. Given the current global pandemic, businesses are realising they must be able to operate remotely without a negative impact on efficiency or customer experience. Decoupling a front-end is therefore one of the most pragmatic, healthy and cost-effective choices a business can make today.
When it comes to digital, our in-house team can take care of everything: from back-end development, to front-end and digital design, SEO, AdWords, automation, information architecture and content optimisation.
Get in touch, by emailing [email protected] today, and let’s discuss how we can transform your business’ website.
Typically, we print brochures which contain product and service information about our businesses. We might hand them out at events, take them to meetings or even send them in the post to customers and clients in order to spread brand awareness, stir up new interest, and offer discounts and alluring offers.
But most printed brochures become out of date after a certain period of time, rendering them obsolete – and they’re not the most environmentally friendly solution. Add to this the world’s changing consumption habits as the scales tip towards increasingly digital experiences, and a printed brochure is no longer the most efficient solution for getting the word out about your brand.
Instead, there’s a growing demand for digital brochures.
Digitalising your brochures is a natural evolution that will help you keep up with changing consumption habits, as the world becomes more reliant on technology and virtual experiences.
Take a look for yourself at how to meet consumer expectations at the touch of a button, and read on to explore the benefits which have clients approaching us to create their digital brochures, today.
Information in a brochure can become quickly outdated – particularly if you’re part of a brand that prides itself on meeting the highest standards of quality, adapting to changing markets or staying one step ahead of regulations. If new industry standards come into play, or the government launches a new initiative that’s in line with your values, print brochures lack the agility you need to spread the word.
One of the main benefits of producing a brochure digitally rather than in print is the ability to be able to edit, amend and add to your content long after it’s been released.
Whether you’re launching a new product, reacting to market changes, new consumer habits or real-world events, you can edit your content in real-time, ensuring you’re always disseminating the latest and most accurate information.
And if your content is always up to date, it’s always relevant to your customers’ lives.
There’s no longer a need to think of a brochure as a standalone or one-off piece of content.
Instead, it becomes a dynamic document that can be built up over time and be integrated with your other digital offerings.
When it comes to your marketing, a digital brochure opens up opportunities by providing data that you just can’t get from paper.
You can gather information on who is looking at your digital documents, where they come in and drop off, and even calculate which pages are most popular. Not only this, you can track where the traffic visiting your brochure is coming from – whether it’s directly from your website, from an email campaign you’ve sent, or an internet search engine – giving you invaluable information about your audience.
This data can be used to optimise your marketing efforts. If you can see that people drop off from your brochure at a certain page, it may be worth redesigning it or rearranging your content. If most people visit via your email campaigns, but you’re only sending them once a month, you can make an informed decision to send them more frequently.
Perhaps most beneficial of all, your brochure can also become a powerful marketing and lead-generation tool in itself.
By placing calls to action (CTAs) throughout, you can direct your readers to take action: whether it’s clicking through to more information on your website, to campaign landing pages or driving them to contact you.
Take a look at the ‘last word’ in our digital brochure, for an example.
It’s even possible to embed forms within your document, so you can collect customer data while encouraging them to sign up to future brand engagement opportunities, such as webinars, newsletters and brochures.
Take advantage of the power of social media and reach an even wider audience with a digital brochure.
With some clever promotion, you can encourage people inside and outside of your business to share your document. Sharing it via a URL link –rather than in a download – can be especially useful in an age where people are sceptical of downloading unknown content.
You can even embed share buttons in your brochure, so then people who read it and find its content useful are able to share it to their own followers, growing your potential audience much wider than you could achieve with a printed version.
Accessibility is a key concern and is become much more standardised across web-based content. Digital brochures have the benefit of offering ‘zoom’ features, and even translation options where needed. And when it comes to accessibility, instead of making several print brochures in different formats, you can adjust contrast ratios, font sizes and offer speech-reader friendly content too.
Engagement is much more versatile with digital brochures, too. In fact, you can grab your readers’ attention in a number of ways.
Embedding video in your document can help bring information to life, and add personality which makes your content even more memorable. You can add animated infographics, transitions and interactive elements to maintain curiosity throughout the user journey, and maximise the impact of every page.
Plus, you can even design brochures which are entirely responsive, with an optimised appearance for every device it’s displayed on.
Have you ever received a physical letter, business card or leaflet with multiple URLs or complicated email addresses written on them? With a digital experience, there’s much less room for user error – and a much larger chance of people visiting the content you’re asking them to.
In fact, using live URL links makes brochures easier to navigate in more ways than one. You can cross-reference pages, chapters and sections within your brochure, wherever they’re relevant, or link externally to additional information – whether on your website, or creating a mailto: link, making it easier than ever for your readers to get in touch. You can explore all these examples in our digital brochure.
By removing the need for printing and delivery, you can save considerably on your production costs.
Not only can you remove the additional costs of paper, production, print and distribution, you can skip out on the stress that comes with potential errors, print deadlines and handling reprints – not to mention you’ll have a much, much lower environmental impact.
All you need to do with a digital brochure is provide the link.
Digital brochures have many features and benefits that make them a great alternative or addition to the traditional print brochure. If you haven’t already, just take a look at our newest digital brochure for an example of how interactive, memorable and engaging they can be.
Ready to open up new possibilities for marketing and audience reach? Or want to speak to us about the role a brochure could play in your promotional and marketing strategies?
Talk to us today at [email protected].
With an estimated 3.6 billion people using social media worldwide, by now you’re probably aware that maintaining your brand’s presence on social media is critical if you want to compete in this ever-progressing digital landscape.
A strong social media presence not only offers new opportunities for leads and sales, but also strengthens customer loyalty, enhances your networking, and opens the door for more partnerships and customer feedback – all the while driving traffic to your website and raising awareness of your brand.
However, the steps needed to assert or improve your presence on socials may feel unclear. Many businesses assume that social media management is easy to take on at first, due to the deceptively simple user experience on most platforms. But in actual fact, it’s a very different, more intricate experience than managing a personal account, and if handled incorrectly, it can even have a detrimental impact on your brand.
So here are seven steps that any modern business can take to ensure their brand is making the most out of social media in the digital age.
By monitoring the performance data of your competitors, you can gain insights into what works and what doesn’t, for smarter decision-making and a better strategy. Researching and analysing competitor behaviour means you can stay one step ahead, and be inspired by new ideas while avoiding their mistakes – and you can outline any threats to your business and identify gaps in your strategy.
After all, why reinvent when you can circumvent?
There are a number of social competitor analysis tools you can use to do this, including FanPage Karma, Awario, Unmetric, and Iconosquare. You then need to decide which audience, engagement, and content metrics are useful to you.
Some of those metrics might be percentage of engagement per media, followers gained, follower growth, comments, likes, the most used hashtags, average posts per day and so on – it’s what’s important to your business.
If you don’t know who your audience is, how can you give them what they want? It’s important to learn your audience’s needs and motivations, as well as their behaviours. What social media platforms do they use? When do they use them? And what are they looking for? With the answers, you can tailor your content to ensure you are serving the right message, at the right time, in the right place.
Different audience demographics behave differently online. So knowing who’s on what platform aids your researching, advertising and marketing decisions, and ensures you’re providing the most relevant content to achieve your business goals.
Once you have an understanding of your audience’s needs and preferences, as well as those of your competitors, it’s time to select which social media channels are most suited to your audience and products/services.
Each social network provides unique delivery opportunities for you to entice your audience. For example, Instagram is a highly visual, creative platform. It can be a great place to showcase your products and services in a more imaginative or artistic manner. It’s also considered to be less formal than other platforms – perfect for showing off your brand personality and company culture.
Twitter, on the other hand, is most often used for consumer care. It’s an effective platform for engaging with your audience, ripe for quick feedback and offering speedy responses. Whereas, LinkedIn is arguably the most useful platform for B2B marketing or targeting a professional demographic.
Consider your channel selection carefully to ensure your messaging is broadcast in the most effective way, reaching the right prospects and generating leads.
It’s common for marketers to spread themselves too thin, so bear in mind your staff resources as part of the selection process. If you have only one team member, attempting to establish a brand presence across six different social media channels may be unrealistic.
Your presence on social media is an extension of your brand, and should, therefore, align with your other forms of brand messaging. Maintaining a consistent voice helps your brand strengthening its trust and reliability, creating a distinct personality among your competitors.
To help you adhere to this, developing brand guidelines can be a helpful tool when maintaining consistency in your Tone of Voice. Consider why your brand exists, what its values are, and how you want customers to feel when interacting with your brand.
The overuse of internet terms or trendy slang can actually damage your reputation, making you seen out of touch or ‘cheap’, and subsequently hurting engagement. In your guidelines, you may consider outlining limitations for hashtag use to avoid being penalised by certain platforms and creating an emoji palette to regulate your messaging. Without such consistency, there’s a lot of room for errors in communication between your brand and your customers.
Arguably the most important social media best practise is your willingness to engage with your audience.
Posting regularly and capitalising on customer interest is a necessity in today’s social climate if you want to keep your followers invested in your brand – and it’s crucial for the growth of your business.
No one wants to receive an automated message or talk to a robot. So, interacting with customers and responding to them quickly is essential if you want to humanise your brand, nurture relationships and increase customer loyalty.
Ensure your account looks active with real-time updates, through Instagram stories or live tweeting for example. Avoid cheesy iStock imagery, and instead opt for authentic, original content that reinforces your brand personality and culture.
In order to remain active and engage, you’ll need to monitor your channels as often as possible, at least daily, and post regularly. There are plenty of social media management tools that can help you do just this. Pre-scheduling social posts is a huge time-saver, rescuing you from posting manually at all hours of the day.
It’s also good practise to keep your ear to the ground, through social listening. Social listening is the process of monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, product, competitors, and more, providing the opportunity to track, analyse and respond to conversations. Understanding how people feel about your brand helps you keep your marketing and product/service development efforts on track.
Without social listening, you might be missing out on a big piece of insight about your brand or industry that people are talking about. It also allows you to outline pain points, and better your crisis management tactics by responding right away to negative posts (should there be any!). It can also help you identify social influencers, providing opportunities for partnerships and advertising.
The final step in any digital marketing campaign is measurement. As with your initial data-gathering exercises, measuring the effectiveness of your social media marketing activity will help you to optimise your approach and guarantee ongoing success. And luckily, there are a range of analytics tools you can use to gain these insights.
Social media is a vital tool that all businesses should take advantage of in order to maintain optimum brand loyalty, reach, and engagement.
If you would like to fine-tune your business’s social media activity, boost your reach and get noticed, get in touch with us today at [email protected].
“Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.”
Never has this oft-cited pearl of business wisdom been more pertinent than it is now. Times are tough, and the companies likely to ride the waves, moving from ‘surviving’ to ‘thriving’ quicker than the rest, will be those who are proactive and positive in pursuit of opportunity.
They will be those with a switched-on, sharpened-up approach to lead generation.
So what does it take to keep those leads flowing in through the door? We’ve broken it down into five critical areas.
Traditional strategies and models would have lead generation sectioned off as an isolated channel. That approach doesn’t hold water today. Leads can and should come from everywhere and everything you do. Your website, your social media marketing, your advertising, your events and exhibitions, your brand strategy, even your conversations with suppliers, contacts and existing customers – they’re all opportunities to be generating new leads and should be factored into your overall strategy.
The key is to approach each with the right mindset, keeping eyes and ears open for avenues of new business, and having the systems in place to capture and capitalise on opportunity as it presents itself.
Marketing generates leads, sales closes them, right? Wrong. Successful lead generation today relies on two-way collaboration between your marketing and sales teams. Both need to be involved at every stage of the design, development and delivery of your lead-generation planning.
Sales can help marketing understand exactly who you should be targeted and offer coal-face insight into what messages and media are likely to work. Equally, marketing can help sales build and nurture the one-to-one personal relationships that become profitable leads.
Now, more than ever, general marketing messages are going to disappear without a trace. If you can’t give people direct answers to specific problems, or if you don’t have a razor-sharp proposition that makes them sit up and take notice, you’ll become just another voice in an already overcrowded market.
It is possible to stand out though. At Proctors, for example, we’ve had great success recently in building a lead-generation campaign around direct, specific and single-minded offers to a targeted group of companies in the logistics industry. By doing our homework upfront – in conjunction with our client’s sales and marketing teams – we’ve been able to cut through the noise and talk to prospective customers about what actually matters to them.
Prospects will become leads far more quickly if you can establish a relationship with them. So a single postcard or impersonal email just won’t cut it. You need to make meaningful connections, based on the quality of your offer and message, and your understanding of who you’re talking to.
We’ve spent the past couple of years working on this area in particular, developing an approach that draws together web analytics, personalised content, social outreach, direct marketing and automation platforms to make the right connections for you – and turn them into high-value leads.
Because opportunities for lead generation permeate every aspect of your business, you need the systems in place to measure its effectiveness and capture the ongoing creation and cultivation of leads. There’s a plethora of tools out there to do just that, so choosing the right one can seem daunting.
The truth is, things can be far simpler than you might believe. It’s all a question of co-ordination and consolidation of technology. And then having the mechanisms in place to take appropriate action as you measure ongoing lead-generation work. That might mean modifying your messaging, showering more love on certain sections of your target audiences, or adjusting the media mix as time goes on.
As with most things in marketing, lead generation works best when you’ve got the fundamentals absolutely right. And that’s where we always start at Proctors, swiftly turning robust plans into hands-on, accountable action.
So, if you want to have a chat about the lead generation opportunities available to you, or if you have a specific project in mind, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us today at [email protected].
Paradigm shifts, the ‘next big thing’, world-changing, disruptive, next-generation, XYZ 2.0… superlatives are at home when it comes to digital technology. So, it’s not surprising that most people roll their eyes at the introduction of the next tech game-changer.
With the gift of hindsight, we can see which emerging technologies were worth the hype over the last few decades – but they’re few and far between. The home PC, and in turn the laptop, the internet, and the smartphone: for the general consumer, these are the few revolutionary technologies that have truly impacted the way we live, work, shop and socialise, paving the way for smaller evolutionary trends which dictate our behaviour.
But is it really possible to make predictions on the next big shift in tech?
Well, hold your eye-rolling for now. Because it’s likely already staring most of us in the face.
Virtual reality (VR) has the Ronseal factor: it’s a self-contained digital ‘reality’ which you can digitally interact with.
VR has been around since the late 70’s. The most commonly cited first incidence of its use is from NASA, when their artist-in-residence David Em created the first virtually navigable digital world. But today you’re more likely to find it used for a video game or perhaps a training simulation.
Augmented Reality (AR) is slightly different. Instead of being self-contained, AR superimposes virtual elements onto the real world: it augments our physical reality.
You’ll most often find AR used on smartphones and tablets, making use of the device’s camera. Those social media filters which give you dog ears or a drastic makeover? They’re a form of augmented reality. And ‘Pokémon Go’ uses AR too.
AR isn’t new, but it is being used in increasingly novel ways – and no, we don’t mean the new filters which make you look like an attractively chiselled supermodel.
AR has potential because while VR removes you from the real world, AR supplements your experience with reality – and can actually increase your engagement with the real world.
Imagine, for example, your VR headset didn’t block off your view of the real world. Instead, it’s a set of glasses, much like a normal set of eyeglasses, but provided a digital overlay of useful information. As a construction worker, you could look at a site and immediately be presented with spatial calculations which could help you cut materials to size without needing a measuring tape. As a surgeon, you’d be able to see your patients’ vitals in front of you, without even turning your head. As a consumer, you’d be presented with information about the materials which make up the clothing you’re about to buy.
All these are real examples – albeit mostly in their infancy. But they have incredible potential to become true game-changers with the right thinking, creativity and application.
Through a combination of enhanced engagement and the presentation of useful information, AR’s possibilities are limitless.
We could go on about the complexities, challenges and intricacies of AR, but instead we’ll keep it snappy, as you’re busy holding down the fort in the real world.
Instead, let’s do a quick summary of AR today:
· AR won’t replace computers
While AR may displace some computers, there’s merit keeping most of them. For example, while some companies have experimented with the addition of an AR dashboard in (mostly luxury) cars, this is unlikely to become the reality for the general public – who needs another distraction while trying to navigate rush-hour traffic? A satnav is plenty enough.
· AR is platform agnostic
AR isn’t owned by Apple, Android or Microsoft: its technology can be used in combination with any of the Big Three (and any other brand, for that matter) as long as the device itself is compatible.
• AR is still in its discovery phase
While we’re already using AR on smartphones, this is unlikely to be its final form – the screens simply aren’t big enough for us to appreciate its full potential. There’s so much scope for AR to play with all our senses: haptic feedback (pressure sensing) could be used for us to more accurately ‘interact’ with virtual elements; eye-tracking could ensure whatever information we need in our peripheral remains in constant view; geo-location and movement tracking can even further blur the lines between the physical and digital. In all likelihood, the vehicle for delivering AR experiences will depend on its context and use case – and that’s really exciting.
• AR could see new tech behemoths emerge
The companies who use AR to its full advantage could well usurp many of the larger, well-established players who ignore it. This may seem overzealous, but in 2000, who could have guessed where Microsoft, IBM, or even Facebook would be today?
If technology’s history has taught us anything, it’s that when a new piece of revolutionary technology comes along, it’s true magic is revealed when it collides with culture. It’s the crucial intersection between technology and the arts which offers the most potential.
Right now, the first wave of AR applications sit in two camps: utilitarian or ‘just for fun’. What we’re seeing today is not dissimilar to the very beginnings of an App Store.
The next wave will come when vehicles for delivering AR experiences gain traction, such as the AR glasses we mentioned above (Snapchat, in fact, launched ‘Spectacles’ as far back as 2016). Not only will we see utilitarian use cases strengthen, we’ll also see AR branch out into new markets.
From seeing how much fuel your car has left just by looking at it, or receiving real-time walking directions without ever having to look down at your screen; from your phone notifications appearing in your periphery, to shopping for new clothes seamlessly without ever having to try them on, thanks to a new AR mirror that superimposes new styles onto your live reflection.
These new applications will go beyond making life more convenient: they’ll start to build the standards behind the tech, and ignite discussions about how our technologies ‘talk’ to each other.
As for the third wave… That comes down to data.
Now is the perfect time for brands to get ahead of the game when it comes to using AR in ways that will truly inspire and engage their audiences.
There are limitless opportunities. Why not contact us today at [email protected] to discuss your goals with our team.
In the short video below, we share an example of a virtual underground station designed to replicate a real-world experience. As you will see, the possibilities are almost limitless. We can design a fully immersive virtual experience, unique to your brand.
Within the tour, multiple features are shown that allow your brand to communicate core messages and keep your attendees engaged throughout their virtual journey.
If you would like to explore the full tour, amongst other virtual experiences, please contact [email protected] to request an interactive demonstration.
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We anticipate the future to be a hybrid model offering both physical in-person exhibits and events, as well as virtual versions. These dual online and in-person meetings require having a platform that can complement both.
Intelligent design is at the heart of everything we do. We balance strategy with creativity to create beautiful branded environments & communications. It simply means the thinking comes before the doing, every time.
Lawless and Inspired have combined to bring together the UK’s best emerging street-artists and their influencer networks, allowing agencies and brands to tap into visual culture. Artists include Jody Thomas who created the 15m high Greta Thunberg wall mura, which highlighted issues of climate change and was featured on the BBC, across national press and went viral on social media.
The Lawless Inspired partnership aims to harness the power of today’s creative pioneers, to deliver physical/digital projects that excite and inspire. Alex Kopfli, Director at Inspired notes ‘by joining forces, we essentially offer agencies and brands a turn key solution, delivering creativity through artistic talent, brought to life by impactful real-life productions merged with digital creativity. The concepts are then distributed to an authentic and sizable audience online through our network.’
Since Lawless launched during the Covid Pandemic, the niche influencer agency has started working with brands to deliver artist-led creative solutions, adding a stamp of cool and credibility to brand campaigns and executions. Lawless Studio has already built up an impressive roster of artists, with the likes of Jody Thomas, Jack Watts, Nerone, Bond Truluv and Shay Casanova, reaching a significantly growing audience of 760k followers as a combined network, quality audiences loyal to each artist they follow, and trend setters in their own right.
Josh Moore of Lawless Studio calls out Inspired’s ‘exceptional track record in delivering first-class brand experiences for the likes of Wavemaker, Mediacom, M&C Saatchi and Fuse’ is the missing piece to the puzzle of delivering stand out creative solutions.
‘We now have the production capacity and logistical know-how to give brands access to creative pioneers and allow them to create amazing content, to give credibility and authenticity to brands through their output, and also reach huge dedicated followings through their social channels.’
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