What percentage of marketers do you think have felt that their ethnic background has affected their career opportunities?
10%? 50%? 100%?
The answers are likely to shock you.
At the next Business as Unusual webinar, join Noisy Little Monkey and guest Azeem Ahmad for an exclusive preview of his 2020 survey into diversity in marketing, in relation to being a person of colour.
Azeem’s research reveals the results of his investigation into the representation of people of colour and their roles in the marketing industry in the UK, and their representation at marketing conferences. We’ll discuss the results in the light of recent events and the actions business owners, directors and marketers might take to effect lasting change.
If you feel confused about what you can do to be a better ally or want concrete information on the scale of the problem faced by people of colour in the marketing industry, this session is not to be missed.
You can join the Business as Unusual webinar by signing up via this link: mnky.bz/bau
Business as Unusual is a fortnightly webinar for in-house marketers, sales professionals and business owners.
Every webinar you can meet with industry experts and learn how to stay productive, profitable and at peace in the pandemic and whatever comes after.
Over the next few months you’ll get insight into advertising, recruitment, infrastructure, video, corporate events, PR, digital, social media, sales, AI and much, much more. Register today and we’ll see you every other Thursday at 3pm.
Azeem is currently Digital Marketing Manager in the Higher Education sector. He has spent several years working in the industry, beginning in a paid search focused role before moving into a multi channel specialism. Having worked both agency side, and in house, he is experienced in various aspects of online marketing activity, including PPC, Social Media, Display, Programmatic, App Marketing and SEO. He has previously spoken at conferences internationally including MeasureFest, and BrightonSEO, and also appeared on podcasts and webinars too.
The past few months have been tough on businesses, and individuals. Working patterns have needed to be adjusted, and remote working practices have been put in place by many businesses.
It’s been hard on everyone. That said, it’s not all doom and gloom, there is light at the end of the tunnel and even if you’re currently in a crisis, with a bit of crisis management and digital marketing, things will soon be back on track. Yes, the economy is slowly re-opening, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be in the clear for a while. If you can’t eradicate your business’ problem, you need to adapt. We can help.
So, what’s going wrong? Are you struggling to generate revenue? Has your industry collapsed? Or are you receiving backlash for something that upset your customers? Whatever the problem, the first step to crisis management is understanding what’s gone wrong so that it can be remedied. You will need to make amends for past mistakes, or examine where in the businesses the sales pipeline has fallen apart. It’s only once you’ve worked this out that you can start to adapt your digital marketing and solve your crisis.
It’s a new day, and a new opportunity for your business. Once you’ve examined what’s going wrong, you will now have the opportunity to start fresh and create a new digital marketing strategy that caters for the present day. Consider a brand refresh or create new social media platforms; whatever will give your brand a boost, do it.
According to a recent study, digital use is growing at an exponential rate with an estimated 7.1% increase in internet users in April 2020 alone. From this, it’s clear that your business needs to be digital. This is where you should start.
By developing a new structure it will become a lot easier for sales to convert. Of course, this entirely depends on what your business is and which industry you work in, but if you’re in need of crisis management, we’ll take a guess that the current structure isn’t working…
We recommend finding a way to generate sales simply and quickly through your website. Plan a new digital marketing campaign that incorporates tactical PPC campaigns and SEO content. Get your website converting and then focus on attracting the customers.
So, where are your customers? Depending on your crisis, they may be sat right in front of you and need enticing with new digital marketing content. They could also be on a new or different platform to where you’re currently marketing – find out where they are and join them.
Now it’s go time. Create content, and lots of it. Engage with your customer on social media and reach out to them in innovative ways using digital PR methods. Get your Google ads up and running – optimised, of course – and retarget your customers. This will make it very easy for them to visit your site, remember your brand and eventually, buy your products and/or services.
One of the most important and best things about digital marketing is the fact that you can change something if it’s not working. No one will question you, no one will probably notice. Now is not the time for pride, so if your strategy isn’t working, find out why and change it.
A great way to do this is by getting feedback from real customers about your campaigns and services. Start with a survey; then develop a network of loyal customers; from there you can curate a fruitful advocacy campaign where customers can have open dialogue with your brand whilst also being your number one fan. Trust us, it works.
Not only is it important to understand where your customers are, but you also need to know where they’re heading. To avoid needing a second round of crisis management, it’s a good idea to plan for the future and initiate digital marketing campaigns that will be future-proof. Anticipate the direction of customer behaviour and invest. This will keep you ahead of the game.
In this day and age, the world moves on, and quickly. Make sure you keep up.
Are you ready for your digital reboot to start? Yes.
Last month, HubSpot officially launched its new CMS Hub. It’s a product their team has been working on for the past two years which is designed to help professional marketers build and optimise their own websites without the headaches. Hurrah!
Sign up for the free Business as Unusual webinar on Thursday 11th June at 3pm (BST).
Hosts Noisy Little Monkey will be joined by Luke Summerfield, the Go-To-Market lead for HubSpot CMS & Web.
Luke will be discussing the obvious topics: CMS, web design, optimisation… But he’ll also share his thoughts on the future of the web and you’ll get his insight on the technological opportunities facing professional marketers in the years ahead.
Register here: mnky.bz/bau
Noisy Little Monkey are a Diamond HubSpot Solutions Partner – specialists in technical SEO and inbound marketing, they’ve helped numerous clients leverage HubSpot to grow their business better. You can get in touch here.
Practically everyone is online right now so it’s a good time to ramp up your comms and digital marketing. Online success comes not only from creativity, but also from data. You’ll want to ensure your strategy is working by measuring metrics. But which ones should you be measuring and what do they all mean?
There are so many ways to determine success, from the number of engagements on a post to website traffic to the number of sales. Start by deciding what success looks like to you and then decide on the metrics that will help you get there. Knowing what your customer journey looks like is important as then you can measure the effectiveness of each part of your marketing and PR strategy and adjust where necessary.
This is all about getting your content and website seen by search engines. There’s a lot of metrics available here including traffic to website, page views, bounce rate, session length and pages visited. Your keywords are very important and as these are the terms that visitors use to find you. Always ensure they are right for your content, use a keyword tool to find the best ones for you and watch your website rise in the SERPs.
Keywords are important here too as your choice of keywords will determine how much your pay-per-click campaigns cost. PPC campaigns allow you can calculate how much it costs to create a lead, a great advantage to have as you can plan out your budgets per campaign. You know exactly where your money is going.
The best metrics to use for email campaigns are the open-rate and the click-through-rate. Be aware that some email clients like Outlook open emails automatically so you need to measure open rates against click-through-rates for the full story.
You’re getting leads in but how many are converting? The quality of the leads is arguably more important than the number of leads, and you need to see the impact on your bottom line. There are good lead scoring tools available allowing you to understand the quality of your leads better.
Quantifiable social media metrics come in a variety, from reach of a post to engagement (likes and comments) to driving traffic to your website. Brand awareness is a harder metric to quantify but you can measure through brand recall and recognition, as well as an increase in online conversations about your brand, not on your platforms. An essential part of digital marketing!
The best way to know if your strategy is right is the number of visitors coming to your website. Drill down to see if they are new or returning visitors. New visitors means your brand awareness strategy is working and new people are coming to see who you are and what you offer!
Find your loyal customers by identifying the ones who come back to you again and again. Give them the content they need to be a quality lead.
Once you find out that a particular visitor has decided to visit you again, it’s a straight indicator of his interest in your business! All you gotta do is, optimize the opportunity and figure out a way to convert this returning visitor into a real lead!
You know when you’re providing your visitors with the content they need by how long they spend on site and understanding when they leave. The bounce rate is just as important as the length of time on a page. If the bounce rate is high and the time on site is low then it’s time to look at where you’re going wrong. Have you got your customers right? Is your digital marketing strategy working?
Talk to us about what success looks like for you: [email protected]. Virtual tea and cake awaits!
If history has taught us anything, it’s that when the going gets tough, marketing is nearly always the first department to face cuts.
Predictably, research from the World Federation of Advertisers’ Covid-19 response tracker has now revealed that 89% of large multinational companies deferred marketing campaigns in April, up from 81% in March. What’s more, 52% of marketers at these companies said they’ll now hold back ad spend for six months or more, compared to just 19% who considered taking similar medium-term action last month.
At present, only 7% of brands want to ‘seize the opportunity’ to invest more in marketing during Covid-19.
While the need to keep a cap on spend and adopt a delicate approach to advertising is perfectly reasonable given the uncertainty of the current climate, this knee-jerk reaction could in fact be to the detriment of their sustainability and growth in the long-term.
When McGraw-Hill Research studied the 1981 and ’82 recession, it found that companies that marketed aggressively had 256% higher sales than those that did not.
Of course, much has changed since then.
However, studies since then have consistently shown that stopping all marketing activity in the wake of an economic downturn hurts a business’ chance of bouncing back stronger.
While the Coronavirus pandemic has been colossal by comparison to previous crises, it would be shortsighted to say there won’t be opportunities for success in the future.
During the financial crash of 2008, swathes of businesses struggled to stay afloat – on the other hand, job losses in the tech and creative industries saw a surge in start-up activity as talented professionals took their skills to new ventures that flourished to become some of the industry’s most dominant players. Uber, Airbnb and Slack were just a few of the enterprises founded at the time of the credit crunch.
In the next ten years, there will no doubt be a host of new brands delivering solutions for a whole new breed of consumer.
The best-received stories on the news right now are the uplifting ones. From a business perspective, that could mean an initiative your company has launched to support your customers, valuable insights your company has uncovered from research or a successful fundraising campaign it has spearheaded.
When pitching stories to the press, it is of the utmost importance for customers to respond positively to the crisis without sounding tone-deaf. Consumers are more alert than ever (no pun intended) to the companies looking for a quick win in the crisis. For that reason, the severity of the situation must always be acknowledged while the tone must be uplifting: juggling the two is a challenging task to say the least.
Prior to the pandemic, people were increasingly engaging with brands who were honest and transparent in their approach, and little will change here.
A recent study from Kantar shone a light into consumer expectations during the coronavirus pandemic. According to their research, 75% of respondents feel strongly that companies should not use this time to promote their band – yet only 8% of the same group suggested that companies should halt PR & advertising activities altogether.
This leaves us in a grey area.
However, 77% of respondents expect brands to be helpful during the pandemic. In practice, that means choosing carefully what you promote, how you position successes and putting the focus firmly on ways you can genuinely support your customers.
It isn’t about spinning an unrelated victory to appeal to your audience or bombarding your audience with ads about how you can “help.”
It’s not about completely cutting spend, but rather about taking a sensitive approach to PR and marketing campaigns. Only by delivering an authentic message that clearly communicates how your product, service or personnel can help during this difficult time.
In truth, it’s the same approach we’ve always taken to advertising, marketing, and PR:
your goal, above all, should be to earn your audience’s trust. Only a genuine brand who stays true to their values can be successful during this time: if that isn’t your business, it’s best to take a step back.
For more advice, insights, tips and tricks in digital marketing and PR, follow us on LinkedIn or get in touch with our team.
As the world takes its first tentative steps out of lockdown, the cogs are starting to turn again in sectors that were completely on hold. A new type of comms challenge is coming along with it. Customers and other stakeholders are no longer satisfied with a ‘we’re doing our best and our fingers are crossed for the future’ message – they want some certainty.
But with supply chains still fragile, staff numbers low and demand likely to vary, businesses need to be agile and responsive. That makes the task of providing definitive answers to customers and clients a difficult one. Difficult, but not impossible.
Here are three steps to managing your communications in an ever-evolving situation.
Step 1 – Check your existing content
Even small pieces of content could be sending out the wrong message. Businesses of all size and stature have missed key areas on their websites for editing. We highlighted some in this recent blog. But as another example, The Marriott is still promoting spring deals in Copenhagen. The discrepancies can be quite subtle, like saying you will respond to customer enquiries in three hours when it’s unrealistic at the moment.
A content audit is an effective way of finding inconsistencies in your communications. Here are some you should be looking out for:
If time isn’t on your side, we can help you find the gaps and tell you how best to tweak your wording to be more relevant.
Step 2 – Keep your content up to date
Guidelines are changing every few weeks, so your content can quickly become out of date. Once you’ve done your content audit, you should have a clearer idea of where wording will need to change regularly. Keep a close eye on these areas and update them as soon as you know how you’re going to respond to new situations.
As attitudes adapt to evolving circumstances, your messaging will need to follow. CEO updates focusing on ‘protecting our heroes’ with messages of ‘thoughts and wishes’ might not have the same positive impact when all people want to know is when they can place an order. Now is the time to be clear about how you’re adjusting to new ways of doing business. And remember to be realistic about the promises you can keep and the timescales you expect.
Also, don’t forget your internal communications. Your employees will also want to hear from you, especially if you’re not currently in contact every day. We recommend setting up a regular content plan, so you can keep them updated and show that they are your priority. Topics will depend on your business situation, but it’s generally best to focus on how you’re working to keep them safe.
Step 3 – Plan your future comms
The future might look unclear, but your stakeholders are unlikely to score you any points for doing nothing while you wait and see. Scenario planning now will help inform your communications strategy. Think about different eventualities and how you plan to adapt. You can build these messages into your communications and take your time getting the tone right now.
You might also need to start thinking about your corporate reporting. Stakeholders will want to know that you have a working plan, so a clear and open report will help you convey the steps you are taking and that you’re adjusting to changing circumstances.
If you’re keen to win new business as demand starts to increase, being proactive with your marketing will be essential. You should still be careful about over-promising when there could be surprises along the way, but you can get around that by being transparent and honest. If your marketing team is currently low on numbers, we can also help you build up a hub of content to unroll when the time is right.
Rebooting your communications
The best place to start addressing your communications is with an audit, so you can tidy up any areas in your content that are sending out mixed messages. We can help you identify these inconsistencies and give you clear and actionable guidance on how to fix them – get in touch if you would like our help. Or feel free to ask us for tips on how to plan your communication strategy as you navigate the next few weeks.More from us
Responsible for a paid ads budget?
Noisy Little Monkey’s FREE weekly webinar returns this week for a dicussion of ‘Advertising Strategies In Crisis & Recovery’ with Jaye Cowle, founder of Launch Online UK.
The advertising landscape has totally shifted in the last couple of months ?
If you’re responsible for a paid ads budget, the big question is: how should you adapt your ad strategy during this crisis?
At this week’s Business as Unusual webinar, you’ll get the answer to this question and more #PPC insights from the brilliant Jaye. She’ll discuss the opportunities available to marketers right now and the tactics you need to implement in order to keep your ads performance strong ?
Details:
Date: Thursday 28th May
Time: 3pm – 4pm
Location: Zoom
Get access to an entire hour of free advice on PPC and online advertising at this week’s Business as Unusual webinar.
Register here: mnky.bz/bau
Independent marketing agency network welcomes eight new members during lockdown
Despite challenges presented by COVID-19, the positive response by independent agency network Pimento has seen the national organisation welcome eight new member agencies and consultants since lockdown began.
In recent weeks, Pimento has not only joined forces with the Marketing Agencies Action Group (MAAG) to deliver a series of online events, but joined the CEO of the Advertising Association in lobbying the UK Government for better support for the creative industries.
This positive approach to doing business has seen Pimento grow its client and member network in the last three weeks. Having pivoted its own business model to offer an unprecedented level of advice to its members, Pimento signed up BASE Media Cloud, Veritone, Made by Factory, Mighty Giant, Hippolyta, Purple Heron, The Parkwood Consultancy and A1WebStats.
Pimento founder and CEO, Stephen Knight said: “There is no getting away from the fact that the creative industries have taken a significant hit as brands look to cut costs. When the economy does start to recover, these will be the sectors which are called upon to rebuild demand.
“That said, we are seeing strong growth in digital, PR, communications and technical design and build, in spite of everything. Clients want honesty, flexibility, fair value and collaboration with other specialists – the Pimento model is more relevant than ever as the international groups struggle to rebuild themselves. To answer the complex briefs being provided by clients, agencies should look to create a virtual team – collaborating with others to produce the strongest results.”
Manchester-headquartered moving image company, Mighty Giant, works in partnership with agencies to bring their ideas to life through animation, 3D, film and virtual effects. While Google search and shopping specialist, Made by Factory, is seeking help with innovative ways in which to form new connections within the sector.
Veritone is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California – with offices in Denver, London, New York, San Diego and Seattle – and is a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and solutions. While Veritone’s UK technical partner, BASE Media Cloud, helps digital media enterprises to work smarter and more cost-effectively using cutting-edge cloud storage and media software tools.
Having been increasingly asked for help with advertising, marketing, visual media and PR activities by clients, Hippolyta Solutions – a corporate finance and solutions platform – wanted to be able to refer work where possible.
Ralph Mann, of visual content specialist, Purple Heron Communication explained: “My digital graphic recording has adapted to support Zoom and Microsoft Teams’ meetings and I needed a professional network to introduce me to new clients – and Pimento was my natural choice.”
Proud of its disruptor status, Pimento members work together to provide a new approach to marketing services, and one that is perfectly suited to today’s economy. Understanding that a single agency can’t always deliver on every element of a brief, Pimento’s member-base covers over 100 marketing strategy and communications skills – offering clients a completely bespoke solution.
At OggaDoon, we often get asked what is high tech marketing. It’s something we have a lot of experience with. But what exactly is it?
Defining tech marketing
Most people would define tech marketing as advertising a tech company. It’s a pretty basic explanation, and in general, we would agree – but that often comes with the assumption that consumers are going to be forcefully encouraged to sign up to something or buy something that really, they could do without.
We have a key difference. We at OggaDoon believe that tech marketing isn’t flogging a product or trying to make someone sign up to a service they will never use. Instead, tech marketing is about telling the stories of exciting tech firms to the people who will genuinely benefit from that product or service. It’s bringing together an audience crying out for a solution with a company that’s already fixed the problem. And it means hitting the headlines for all the right reasons.
What about high tech marketing?
You might have seen high tech or deep tech, two terms used for two types of businesses. One is simple: software businesses rather than hardware business. That means you cannot touch the technology you’re using, and all technology needs some sort of sofware.
The other is a bit more complicated, and that’s technology designed for businesses rather than individuals.
Thinking about our clients past and present, we have examples of both on the books. BlackDice and Zeetta deliver software to businesses, and both happen to be software. Splento uses software and delivers to both businesses and individuals.
Aren’t the maketing and tech industries the same?
Not really (sorry). There is also marketing tech, or technology used specifically by the marketing industry – but that is usually something we at OggaDoon use for ourselves to help us deliver the best possible service for clients.
What are the latest developments in tech marketing?
A huge amount, and it never stops. We love being at the very forefront of many tech niches, such as edtech, medtech, or proptech, and we deliver outstanding reach to our clients aligned to their specific business goals.
Some of our clients use technology to reach people in new ways, like Forth, a biomarker company with an innovative app.
Some use technology to make their clients’ lives easier and to deliver results, like forghetti, which offers a free app that removes passwords using a unique doodle.
Some use technology to make a positive impact in the world, tracking the energy usage of buildings, and helping clients to reduce their carbon, like Demand Logic.
Al of our clients using technology are driven not just by a curiosity of what can be achieved through technology, but also by their values. This means that means the person at the end of the technology never gets lost.
Our stunning, centrally located private 12 desk studio/office in the heart of Bristol city, just off Christmas Steps has now become available.
This is an opportunity to work in a beautiful studio/office that includes bespoke furniture, meeting room, shower facilities, bean-to-cup coffee machine and views across the whole of Bristol to name just a few perks.
Included:
• Floorplate – 1,000+ sq ft
• Fully furnished including all desks, pedestals, and ergonomic chairs
• Completely private and secure entrance
• Meeting room
• Shower and W/C
• Kitchen and multiple break-out areas
• Bespoke furniture
• Tala lighting
• All bills and superfast broadband included
• Professionally cleaned (weekly)
• Flexible 12 month contract (No long leases here!)
£3,600 p/m including all services and rates
Please email [email protected] for more information.
You need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information